PIRGSPECTIVES ontario public interest research group mcmaster
FALL-WINTER 2012-2013
NEWSLETTER OF OPIRG MCMASTER Free
Alternative Welcome Week 2012
A Radical Learning Experience
Preeti Nayak
Activism means different things for different people. It is embodied in different ways, it gives birth to different visions and allows people to become engaged citizens. This was realized through my experience in coordinating this year’s Alternative Welcome Week. This was a week of events in which I, and many other AltWW participants, was constantly learning new discoveries about the communities we live in. The most empowering moment(s) was to witness activist niches being born through conversations. Networks were being tapped into and energy to mobilize students, among other community members, was widespread. It was especially wonderful to observe such engaged 1st year students, performing outstanding spoken word or asking inspiring questions at movie screenings such as “How can youth participate in social change?” We had events which illuminated issues on mental health, discourses on race, sustainable living, gentrification processes, and much, much more. Alternative Welcome Week reaffirmed my belief that community engagement is critical in a holistic learning experience. Learning in the classroom is insufficient in becoming conscientious individuals. Bike rides, workshops, stand-up comedy, movies, breakfasts and even conversations over coffee and poetry---these are the experiences which awaken our minds, our bodies and spirits. They push us beyond our comfort zones and introduce us to new ideas and new people. Alternative Welcome Week was about learning, being engaged and 1.
having a great time: a radical educational experience, which seemed only fitting to kick off a new school year. Activism is always a collective endeavor and the success of the week would not have been possible without OPIRG’s amazing volunteers and staff, whose support was so valuable and much appreciated. It was a truly humbling experience to coordinate this year’s Alternative Welcome Week and I hope everyone who participated was able to take away something meaningful while also feeling empowered to engage in social change. T
INSIDE
pirgspectives:
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Alt Welcome Week Volunteer Profile Adaptive Design Threadwork Clothing Swap Holiday Giving Alternatives MI Water Buy Nothing Contributors
volunteer profile
AiLi Wang AiLi Wang is the artist who created the beautiful posters this summer for OPIRG. Volunteer Coordinator Randy Kay says “she’s like our secret weapon of beauty.” AiLi has always had an interest in art, but she says her passion for science has been equally strong. She decided to go into sciences and treat art as more of a private pursuit. In her second year of bachelor of health sciences at McMaster she is increasingly busier and only gets time for art once in a while. “I really enjoy doing the posters for OPIRG in my leisure time, which allows me to publicize all the wonderful activities we organize using my creative side,” she says. It also gives her a lot more feedback which helps to improve her skills significantly. “Perhaps one day I will do something of the same caliber as a professional artist. In the meantime though, I just really want more sleep.” Her one goal for this year is to learn video editing “because that sounds really fun and cool too!” AiLi attended high school in Brampton, Ontario, but before that she lived many years in both Singapore and China, indulging in her love of literature and manga (Japanese comics developed in the late19th century) .T
Margot Rosenberg pirgspectives fall winter 2012-2013
CUTTING CLASS: IT’S A CARDBOARD LIFE
Interview with Brianna Smrke and Alisha Sunderji, Founders of Adaptive Design Bianca Curutan
1. Constructing furniture out of cardboard, now that’s certainly a creative idea! How and when did the Adaptive Design working group get started? I heard the Ryerson Adaptive Design studio team give a talk a few summers ago. They make cardboard furniture for children with special needs. The stories they shared were so inspiring that I wanted to get more involved. When the studio offered to host free cardboard furniture-making nights, I jumped at the chance to attend. That’s where I learned the construction skills. I knew I wanted to bring the idea to McMaster; with help from my friend, Alisha, and a lot of support from OPIRG, the working group came about. 2. What is the main goal of Adaptive Design? In an increasingly digital and disconnected world, the group stands up for the fulfillment that comes from making things with your own two hands – from tinkering around and learning from your mistakes. Once you realize what you can make with just a few pieces of cardboard and that you have the capacity to make change, your mindset shifts. You become empowered – a problem solver. As much as Adaptive Design is about physically building furniture, the group also believes in building capacity via showing people that they have the potential to be creative and constructive without destroying the environment. The better world envisioned is one that’s built by all of us.
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3. What projects are you currently involved in? We made a bench/bookshelf - depending on which way it is oriented, the function changes. That was our first big project. Next, we’re looking to make chairs! We have a lot of plans for how to use our building skills once we’ve gotten a bit better at making furniture. Specifically, we intend to work with community partners and perhaps making sturdy outdoor furniture for campus, but we have to make sure we can execute these plans first. 4. What advice would you give someone who is interested in getting involved? Send us an email at adaptivedesignhamilton@gmail.com so we can add you to our mailing list and keep you updated about the drop-in building sessions. Also, check out our blog adaptivedesignhamilton.wordpress.com for more information and exciting pictures. 5. Do you have any other thoughts to share? Until I started building things, I had no idea how satisfying making something with your own hands can be. If you haven’t tried manual labour before, maybe you should find a way to fit it into your life to get yourself thinking in a different way. Also, OPIRG is such a great place to bring crazy ideas that have the potential to change McMaster, Hamilton, or the world. Start a conversation about your idea and see where it leads! T
pirgspectives fall winter 2012-2013
From Rags to Riches
Bianca Curutan
“The man who invented the zip fastener was today honoured with a lifetime peerage. He’ll now be known as the Lord of the Flies.” (Ronnie Barker) Have you ever found yourself wanting to get rid of your old, used clothes (not to mention that horrible sweater you received from Aunt Mildred on your last birthday)? Perhaps they are too big or small for you now, or they are incredibly outdated. Whatever the reason, you want to get rid of them - and fast! but your student budget is keeping you from buying that suave dress you saw at H&M or that retro Super Mario Bros. shirt from Blue Notes? No problem! At this makeshift thrift shop, you never know what treasures you’ll find! In October, Threadwork came back for round 5 of its infamous clothing swap in the MUSC Atrium! Days prior to this exciting semi-annual event, Threadwork volunteers could be found in the MUSC clubs area, accepting donations from students, staff, and other members of the community in the form of clothing, coats, jewelry, shoes, bags, and other accessories. In return, the donors were given a number of points that could be used on the clothing swap day towards attaining some new clothes… or rather, some “new used” clothes that had been thoroughly laundered by the Threadwork team members themselves. But let’s take a step back for a moment to understand what exactly Threadwork is. Threadwork is an OPIRG working group that was founded in 2010 by students of - you guessed it! - McMaster University. The group encourages individuals to think critically about clothing and its implications on the environment, social justice, and the community, maintaining such core values as: • Sustainability • Alternative economy • Fair labour • Community • Do-It-Yourself (DIY) The clothing swap event itself had a great turnout. Throughout the day, students fluttered in and out of the event to swap clothes, enjoy some good music, and chat with the Threadwork 5.
volunteers; not to mention take advantage of the handy changing tents to make sure their treasures fit just right. Those with a creative eye could even piece together a last-minute Halloween costume! Any clothes leftover after the event were donated to charity and a new collection will be started before the next event, so if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that the selection will always be dynamic. Now don’t go on thinking that the clothing swap is the only project that Threadwork is working on. The group is available as an ongoing resource to anyone who would like to learn more about conscious consuming. Additionally, DIY workshops are offered periodically by volunteers, such as knitting circles and Sewing 101 which teaches participants about sewing and sewing machines. In the future, the group also aims to compile a database of local thrift stores and environmentally-friendly and/or ethically-sourced retailers. If you’d like to learn more about Threadwork and/or are interested in getting involved, please visit http:// www.opirg.ca/content/threadwork or contact the team at macthreadwork@gmail.com. T
pirgspectives fall winter 2012-2013
TIS THE SEASON... Meghna George
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With the construction of decorated storefronts and the prevalent rhythm of carols, it is no surprise that the holiday season is creeping towards us. Our habits as consumers often range from shopping at malls or other large retailers, to buying from local businesses, to not exchanging presents at all. Regardless of how one spends their holidays, this season can often highlight the income disparities that exist both locally and internationally. Hamilton itself has approximately 20% of its population living in poverty and that number forms a part of an increasingly disparate reality that occurs across the globe. In many parts of the world people are unable to access basic resources such as food, education, shelter, etc. let alone think about buying holiday presents. Nonetheless, the holiday season can also provide a perfect opportunity to think critically about how we engage in gift-giving and consider alternative kinds of presents. Here are a few suggestions: 1) Living Gifts: Ten Thousand Villages is one of the largest Fair Trade Organizations in North America whose purpose is to allow artisans from developing countries to earn income through the sales of their products and the dissemination of their stories. Around the holiday season, this organization has a Living Gift program in which people can buy needed gifts such as training for women, school supplies for children, plants, trees, livestock and farmland for communities. This is a great way to give a gift, either individually or shared, that makes an impact in the lives of many marginalized people. 2) Volunteer or donate to Food Banks: There are a number of Food Banks in Hamilton that see increased attendance during the holiday season and often need community support to keep them running through these crucial periods. Many of these organizations look for volunteers during the holiday season to help sort and distribute food. Or if you do not have time to volunteer consider donating food to these banks. While it is tempting to grab that old box of crackers that has been sitting in the back of your
pantry, try to donate nutritious non-perishable items that can help individuals and families have a healthy and delicious meal during the holidays. 3) Be inspired to start your own project!: In many developing countries, medical facilities often do not have proper supplies to sterilize equipment and this often resulted in increased infection and mortality rates. As a result, a young lady I knew decided she was going to start her own initiative and collect soap and other disinfectants to send to hospitals in different parts of the world. After reaching out to many organizations who were interested, she was successful in her campaign and
within a few months she was off to a hospital in Western Africa. Though this seems daunting, getting inspired to take initiatives and work with local and international community members is definitely possible! And the best part is that these projects go beyond the holiday season and can make an impact all year round. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it should get people to start thinking about alternatives to set practices. I would recommend going out and getting involved with local and internationally focused community organizations and seeing how you can make a difference this holiday season. T
The Fight To Save Every DrSplet McMaster Initiative for Water (MI Water) returns to serve the McMaster community after their first successful year as an OPIRG working group. In their goal to fight the good fight for water preservation and awareness, MI Water has joined forces with the Canadian based non-profit organization The Water Project. As their trusty sidekick, MI Water aims to help The Water Project in their aim to raise awareness of issues related to sanitation and their goal in supporting countries in need of safe, healthy water. As we all know, with great power comes greater responsibility, hence MI Water is looking for the support of the McMaster community to help fundraise $3000.00 towards helping The Water Project with one of their hand-pump construction projects. All details related to the project can be found on MI Water’s website, www.miwater.webs.com. First term has been a successful one for the group. MI Water has held two successful bakesales, providing the McMaster students with the energy they need and the awareness to succeed. MI water also joined McMaster’s Open Circle in raising awareness of the water crisis around the world. Together the two OPIRG working groups collaborated on a documentary screening of Blue Gold: World Water Wars, building a friendly, open forum for students to discuss and share their opinions and thoughts. McMaster Initiative for Water is in the midst of putting their greatest event as of yet into action. Working ever so passionately with an ocean of enthusiastic members, the group meets every Thursday 6:00 to 7:30 planning The Thirst Games.
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Kumar Jadoo Have we peaked your curiosity? Feel free to drop in during our weekly general meetings to learn more and potentially even join our team of water-loving members. Stay updated with regards to our meeting times via our Facebook page (www.facebook. com/macforwater) or twitter updates (@ MIforWATER). T
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t was only November 1st, but the grocery store I happened to be standing in was already
piping in a soundtrack of syrupy Christmas carols. The Halloween candy was just moved out of prime real estate into discount bins, and the familiar Christmasthemed displays were already taking root. Good economic news is harder to come by postrecession, so retailers were obviously pulling out all the stops to push the sublime ethos of the holiday season: sales, sales, sales. With $10.7 billion scooped up by retailers on Black Friday in 2010, no one wants to miss an opportunity to seize a buck. Black Friday is the Super Bowl of shopping events, and though our neighbours to the south are the undisputed
Around this time eleven years ago I began my longterm relationship with Buy Nothing Day when I helped organize Wilfrid Laurier University’s first observance of the holiday. The anti-consumption message was a tough sell at a university anchored by a business school, so we celebrated BND as a friendly, end-of-semester Open House instead. Setting up shop in a prime location in the student centre was a no-brainer since it was already basically a mall. This high-traffic area would normally be the home of tables pitching highinterest credit cards to students, or cheap posters for dorm room walls, but not on BND.
BUY NOTHING!
Michael Borrelli
Maybe they are finally noticing that the endless lineups, teeming, trampling crowds and $100 flatscreens seem out of place on a day reserved for giving thanks and resting after the great family get-together.
By booking all the space in the concourse months before, on Buy Nothing Day we effectively shut down the campus mall for a few hours while handing out free coffee and homemade treats. Passers-by were only asked to consider the social and environmental impacts of their consumer choices, and to consider trying to go the rest of the day without buying anything.
Not coincidentally, in a nod to the greatest day of the retail calendar, the day when (as the myth goes) many bean-counters finally get to pull out their black pens, Buy Nothing Day is also celebrated on the last Friday of November.
Of course there were no hard feelings if people wouldn’t or couldn’t. We all understood that even our “free” snacks were made with ingredients purchased a few days before, so BND had only temporarily shifted our consumption patterns.
The appeal of the holiday is simple: Nothing is more peaceful than sidestepping Black Friday’s commercial orgy in lieu of a day off from the consumer treadmill.
But that wasn’t really the point, and the following year I told Kitchener radio station as much: that the real goal of our BND party was to build a community of people at our school who thought about their consumption on a daily basis, not just once a year.
champions of the retail arena, but in recent years some have objected to the thought of the shopping day starting with 12:01AM sales.
I’ll admit, fighting the compulsion to buy is tough, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate a brief abstinence from this comforting feedback loop. A few minutes of retail therapy followed by a rush of endorphins is enough to get most people to happily agree that ending is better than mending, but BND challenges consumers to break that neural circuit.
My words obviously hung around long enough to spite me, because exactly one year later I was left in a grocery checkout, listening to Christmas carols. Our community had grown larger than the year
before, and we’d run out of coffee cream. As I handed over the cash, I felt only a little pang of guilt while ruminating on my hypocrisy. My guilt was eased by reflecting on an exchange I’d overheard earlier that day: a fairly radical anti-capitalist professor acknowledged that he’d traded away his idealism that morning for a litre of milk destined for his kid’s cereal bowl. Buy Nothing Day or not, life goes on. And it’s a good thing, too, that those events didn’t devolve into an alienating pissing match over ideological purity. Slowing down the consumer impulse will only make a shred of difference if it’s taken up by the mainstream, because modern living is increasingly defined by consumption. Our economies and our identities are increasingly driven by the need to consume. It seems as if the only route away from a future threatened by environmental, economic and social collapse is one that challenges this paradigm that a better life or world can be bought off the shelf. So if you’ve not already planned your Black Friday getaway to Buffalo’s outlet malls, or set your alarm for 4AM to get the best deals online, think about forgoing that reassuring little shot of brain chemicals this Buy Nothing Day. Leave your wallet or purse at home, pack a lunch for work, and try a little retail celibacy for a day--you might find you like it. T
opirg.ca CURRENT WORKING GROUPS Adaptive Design Body Equity Community Volunteer Action Food for Life Guatemalan Solidarity Hamilton Freeskool Hamilton Student Community Initiative Hamilton Womyn’s Bike Collective Just $top! McMaster First Nations Students Association MI Water Threadwork Thank you to all the contributors to this issue of PIRGspectives THIS ISSUE DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MAGGIE HUGHES Articles: Preeti Nayak Margot Rosenberg Bianca Curutan Meghna George Kumar Jadoo Michael Borrelli Photos: Bianca Curutan Randy Kay Santa Claus Brianna Smrke Layout: Randy Kay Cover photo “Many Hands” puppet at PIRGtopia 2012