debmetal

This is what a forced eviction looks like

debmetal — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:55:57 +0000

On January 23, 2009 at 2am, mixed forces surrounded Dey Krahorm – the community with the longest, resistance to unlawful eviction. Just after 6am, more than 250 armed forces and 300 breakers attacked the villagers in a brutal show of force, despite their

Writing great web content

debmetal — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:41:30 +0000

I’m in love with this book Write me a web page, Elsie!. If you’ve ever found it difficult to write for the web, get a hold of this book and all your problems will be solved. Written in an easy-to-follow, friendly and entertaining style everything you ever needed to know about writing’s in here.

Rachel even hand writes a thank you note when she sends it from NZ.

Here’s to great writing. Thanks Rachel!

Organic food boxes in Sydney

debmetal — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:48:36 +0000

Today I made my first raw vegan meal – Save-the-tuna wraps – from Ani Phyo’s ani’s raw food kitchen. They were so good we had them for lunch and dinner!

And that reminds me. Jura Books runs an organic food coop. Excellent value at $10, $20 and $30 boxes. Food should be affordable – thanks Jura!

If you’d like to get involved in ordering, sorting, delivering boxes or publicising the co-op get in touch and spread the word to friends, family and workmates. More members means greater variety in produce.

Changing direction a lot

debmetal — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:13:28 +0000

I’ve been hiding .. but now I’m ready to talk again : )

A year ago a fellow blogger and friend of mine told me about the Sydney Leadership Program. My initial reaction was something along the lines of “that’s gotta be way out of my league”, and so I promptly moved on to other things – like trying to work out why I felt so ineffective and unproductive at work despite putting all my energy and loads of hours into it.

About 2 months ago this same friend graduated from the 2008 program and emailed me the application form for 2009 – again, I thought, “nah, not for me”.

However, I did go to the Benevolent Society’s website and read the application form. I liked how they talked about leadership as “leadership without formal authority” and non-hierarchical leadership – I wanted to know more.

Two weeks ago, after a few stressful application-writing sessions and a gruelling interview – guess what? I learned that my year would be very different from what I had planned. I finished 10 years of studying part-time for my BA in June 08 and I was planning, well, to be honest, a lot of hanging around in hammocks reading trashy mags and dozing. But that’s not to be. Two weeks ago I learned that I am about to embark on an incredible journey – one that will be exhilirating and no doubt very confronting from time to time.

Wish me luck! I know I haven’t written for a long time but I’m back and I’ll be using this blog to track my trajectory and see how I go.

Changing direction a little

debmetal — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:48:32 +0000

I want to change the direction of this blog a little to reflect a more personal ‘change’. I still want to see change in the world – people who look after each other, obscene wealth shared among many, roofs over peoples’ heads and blankets to keep people warm. A hug now and again. Simple enough.

But I also want some change in my life. I want to move away from the city. It’ll always be here. I need to be near trees and fresh air.

Play guitar.
Read.
Grow veggies.
Share yoga.
Sing.
Help my community.

I want to see what happens.

On Writing Books

debmetal — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:27:27 +0000

Mark Pesce wrote this on his blog The Human Network: What happens after we’re all connected? a few days ago. I really liked it. I found it inspiring.

On Writing Books.

be the media

debmetal — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:21:59 +0000

Sydney Independent Media Center (IMC) is an Open Publishing website that is run by and for the grassroots community.

Don’t hate the media. Be the media.

The Virtual Activist 2.0 tutorial

debmetal — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:15:16 +0000

I don’t seem to be including much of me in my posts yet but I’m kind of exhausted at the moment. I just want to collect all the cool stuff I find around online activism into one place.

When I finish uni and help my Dad get settled I hope to have a bit more time to actually talk about why I choose the posts I do. In the meantime, here’s a good resource with some tips on how to use technology for organising and advocacy:

The Virtual Activist 2.0 tutorial

Leave me a comment if you have any tips or find any of this useful.

Image header … thanks Bansky!

debmetal — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:23:36 +0000

Free web conferencing

debmetal — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:20:57 +0000

Free web conferencing

The world’s free open source web meeting company today announced it’s opening its service to the public.