[alt-media-res] reporting in

[zoe young]

hey everyone

great news on the tech front. am thinking mick will be nice and reliable.
hope so anyway, cos I happen to know he's off to spain to build a house
for two months quite soon.. but will maintain tech connections.

anyway, here be another small report from the field, well the magical
nature reserve that is the Isle of Honey to be precise, where been at this
amazing radical seminar on Life as Commerce in a beachfront pousada next
to the beautiful white semi-abandoned Fort of Our Lady of Pleasures (kid
you not...).

political gatherings in south america always seem to involve a lot of
beaches for some reason..... been bonding with a geezer from Kyrgyzstan,
an Ecuadorean, Colombians, several Paraguayans (they do great mate! with
bits of orange in and all sorts...), a Siberian, a big old Panamanian
indigene who used to live in Bethnal Green, a Ghanaian, Malaysian, etc etc

Full on issues going on of private companies gaining rights to manage
'ecological services' from under the feet of indigenous people etc. they
say here that this privatisation of life itself is last front of enclosure
for capital... still getting my head round it all.

would be doing interviews for the radio show and more but my sound
recorder and camera took a dip with me on the way to the pousada so no
longer function.

am sad and regretful but not miserable about it - hard to be in this place
- and in fact is nice to be without internal pressure for a while to
always record, interview, note, photograph...  in fact the dunking event
was a nice lesson for me in many ways. trying to learn better to take
time, listen more, don't try to do everything at once, connect with the
place, the people, feel good and smile even in face of injustice and
destruction...a bit like the brasilian culture. but without subsiding
totally into laissez faire and not caring...

anyway, stuff was insured, and even before getting home to sort all that
out will try and get another mp3 recorder in Curitiba next week. then can
do more interviews and árticularly help out Sebastian from Radio Mundo
Real, Real World Radio, of Uruguay with interviews with biodiversity
activists and negotiators at the Cop and Mop next week.

which should be both great content for ongoing London imc radio show and
help me to understand how RMR work, particularly in alliance with Friends
of the Earth Uruguay. maybe we can look in future to collaborate in
developing an ifiwatch radio programme service to go with the video
content... ITEM who host IFIWatchnet also have good connections with amarc
the global community radio thing.... lots of potential content and
outlet...

also met the FOEI international press person, a seemingly rather lovely
Italian called Niccolo from Amsterdam who by phone had helped me to
publicise Eyes on IFIs launch back in 2004, so Sebastian and I are going
to talk to him about options for the future since we both have web media
initiatives semi-connected to FOEI and could make an alliance to take them
forward in face of some people in the network who don't see the value of
these techie web developments as a tool of environmental campaigners to
counter the dominant online discourses etc etc etc.....

so it's all good, will try and get back to doing alt media res interviews
(including with Sebastian, Magela at Item, Niccolo also is very interested
in the project) when I finally drag myself away from this piece of heaven
that is Ilha do Mel.

the rest of the crew are gradually leaving, a lot on a field trip today
(somehow I wanted but didn't want to go to the waterfall in some carbon
accredited reserve 2 hours by boat, half hour dirt road, half hour walk,
am bleeding a LOT) so instead am in cyber cafe, (few miles down beach on a
crazy rusty bright pínk bike) for first time in ages - it feels like. so i
think before Curitiba mayhem I'll stay a day or three extra at the
pousada, swim and roam the forest and be alone awhile and transcribe some
interviews and stuff so there's less to do back in London.

in case anyone wants to reach me the contact of the pousada is: brasil
(55?) 41 275 4455 or 41 9978 1367 (but they don't speak a lot of
english....) after that (prob monday or tuesday) I'll head for Hotel
Bristol in Curitiba to hang more with the forest campaigners, that is 41
3218 8500, and after next weekend I'll aim to be back at the lovely Elsa's
flat in Montevideo, that is 598 (2) 708 1306.

am due to fly home on the 29th, arriving 30th evening. my mobile survived
the dunk (thanks to nice cover bought in porto allegre...) but only
connects sporadically. that remains 07931 316 970.



well. how is everyone there? the toronto mission? preparations for
palestina and belgrade? the imc history? am missing you all, but not in a
huge hurry to come home right now either. thanks a million for this
opportunity, is fantastic in many many ways.

xxxxx z

ps does anyone still need an MP3 recorder for the project? I will try and
get another I-Audio so that the caput one's bits, which survived, are
still useful, but in case I can't find one of that make in Curitiba, maybe
I can get another back home and pass on whatever model I get here to
someone else? just an idea....