Segment from Waves of Change: DECCAN Development Society

Eleventh Annual Mobile Biodiversity Festival flagged off

The Eleventh Annual Biodiversity Festival of the Deccan Development Society is inaugurated on January 22, 2010 in Medak District of Andhra Pradesh. The month-long festival, known the world over for its cultural vibrancy and environmental significance will travel through nearly 55 villages and will conclude on February 13, 2010. The first Biodiversity Festival of the DDS was held in 1999. Greatly buoyed up by the response it received, the Festival was made mobile from 2001. The festival generated an unprecedented energy and an enlightened awareness on the issue of biodiversity in all the villages. The Deccan Development Society was a key constituent of the National Technical and Policy Core Group for the Ministry of Environment & Forests in the massive National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan carried out all over India during 2001-2003. As part of this work, in 2001, the Society initiated the concept of a Mobile Biodiversity Festival in which bullock carts decked with traditional seeds, and carrying the message of agricultural biodiversity and its importance to farmers, travelled from village to village covering over 70 villages. This festival generated a never-before cultural energy and an informed awareness on the issues of biodiversity in all the villages. And it found resonance when the final National Biodiversity Action Plan hailed the biodiversity festivals as a tool for the promotion of agro biodiversity all over the country and recommended that the Community Gene Banks model of the DDS be adopted as a national model. Elated by this development, the Deccan Development Society has continued to celebrate the Mobile Biodiversity Festival as an annual feature. The festival which emblazons environmental spirituality is once again celebrating the return of the Sun on the auspicious Makara Sankranti day with bullock carts, folk singers and dancers, spreading abundant joy along the village roads of Medak and will dialogue with over 50,000 farmers on the issue of biodiversity, local seeds and dryland farming. The caravan started from Village Metlakunta, Nyalkal Mandal. Dr Hampaiah, Chairman, AP State Biodiversity Board & Mr Ashok Kumar Retired IAS & Member, AP State Biodiversity Board, Mr Chandrasekhar, Joint Director – Agriculture Dept., Mr Jayadevulu, Chief Executive Officer, Medak Zilla Parishad, Smt Nagamma Manikgoud, Sarpanch, Metlakunta, Mr Vilas Reddy, Former President, Mandal Praja Parishad, Nyalkal Mr Srinivas, Scientist, DATT centre, Sangareddy, Mr Viswanath Patil, Karnataka Rajya Rythu Sangha, Bidar were took part in the Inaugural Ceremony. Addressing the gathering Dr Hampaiah said APSBB decided to work with the Deccan Development Society (DDS) to protect and promote millet and other crops across the State and to organise these programmes at mandal level. DDS director P.V. Satheesh said that the programme was aimed at protecting the traditional crops which represent the culture. An eight year old girl belongs to Pastapur village Mayuri shot a film on Ratnavva, who was able to cultivate her two-acre farm in Dhanvar village without using any pesticides or getting any seed from the government. Ratnavva has been doing so for the last ten years. “We are able to identify the hidden talent in her and tried to bring it out. It will be helpful for other children also to exhibit their talent and interests,” Mr. Satheesh said. Ratnavva & Mayuri were honoured by Dr Hampaiah. Satheesh requested Joint Director Agriculture to introduce awards to farmers who grow dryland crops instead of giving to only commercial crops growers. Mr Jayadevulu, CEO of Zilla Parishad says that I have seen all these crops in my childhood days and I am very happy to see all here in your region. Now especially Ragi Ambali, the fancy name is Ragi Malt using lot of urban people because of dietary and health reasons. Four Biodiversity Conservers Cheelamamidi Laxmamma, Khasimpur Lachamma, Matoor Chandramma, Metlakunta Rajamma were honoured for their contribution to biodiversity. On this occasion Dr Hampaiah released the Millet Calendar and Millet T-shirts. The festival will culminate on 13th February 2010 at Machnoor Village of Jharasangam Mandal.

Estela de Carlotto on the New Media Law in Argentina

From Democracy Now:

Argentina has enacted a media reform bill aimed at undoing dictatorship-era rules that left a handful of companies in control of national broadcasting. The bill allocates two-thirds of the broadcast spectrum to non-commercial stations, limits the number of licenses any one company can hold, and promotes Argentine-made content. The bill was based on a proposal written by a coalition of Argentine community media, human rights groups, unions and progressive academics. President Cristina Fernandez quickly signed it into law following its approval by the Argentine Senate. Estela de Carlotto of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo was among thousands to celebrate outside Congress.
Estela de Carlotto: “Everyone will have the opportunity to have a form of communication for the dignity of the people. Culturally, it is good; the advancement of freedom of expression is good. Celebrating here, we are all together. The Grandmothers are a part of these people that never ever gave up.”

Interactive Global Map of Alternative Media

http://www.ourmedianetwork.org/wiki/map

Alfonso Gumucio Dagron on the Our Media Conference

La red NuestrosMedios

Dos aportes sobre comunicación y cambio social. Alfonso Gumucio Dagron presenta la experiencia de la red NuestrosMedios, una iniciativa internacional de artistas, académicos y activistas vinculados con la comunicación.

Por Alfonso Gumucio Dagron *
Desde Guatemala

NuestrosMedios o OurMedia es una red internacional de activistas, académicos y artistas –la única de esta naturaleza– vinculados con la comunicación para el cambio social, que se reunió nuevamente a fines de julio en Río Negro, cerca de Medellín, Colombia.

Esta fue la octava conferencia de esta red sui generis, que comenzó el año 2001 en Washington DC, por iniciativa de John Downing y de Clemencia Rodríguez, con una discreta reunión de cuarenta especialistas de la comunicación, ya que muchos de ellos asistían a otra conferencia internacional. Desde entonces, la red se ha expandido y fortalecido en cinco continentes.

El año 2002, en Barcelona, NuestrosMedios era todavía una red relativamente pequeña, enriquecida por la participación de académicos que asistieron al congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Estudios de la Comunicación Social (Aiecs). Allí se decidió crear una página web para afirmar la identidad de la red: www.ourmedianet.org

Al año siguiente, en su tercera reunión en Barranquilla, Colombia, se produjo su primera eclosión notable, gracias a la participación de dos centenares de estudiosos y estudiantes colombianos y la programación de dos días de diálogo y uno adicional para visitar experiencias comunitarias de comunicación para la paz.

Paulatinamente, la red creció en número de adherentes y también en la calidad de sus conferencias anuales. El programa de la siguiente, en Porto Alegre, Brasil, ocupó tres días de discusión y visitas a radios comunitarias, talleres de capacitación y producción de mensajes y alianzas con organizaciones locales de activistas de la comunicación participativa.

Por primera vez la quinta conferencia de NuestrosMedios se hizo en Asia, en Bangalore (India), de manera independiente, sin vincularse con otras reuniones internacionales. El programa se extendió cuatro días e incluyó uno dedicado a visitar el proyecto comunicacional de Budikote, una de las radios comunitarias pioneras de la India.

Australia fue el destino del siguiente encuentro, asociado a la Universidad de Western Sydney. Se recibieron más de 200 propuestas de ponencias, de 35 países, y entre los participantes había activistas de 50 organizaciones y movimientos sociales y académicos de 60 universidades. Un importante documento redactado de manera colectiva, la “Carta de Sydney” (http://www.ourmedianetwork.org/?q=node/130), delineó los objetivos de la red a la vez de establecer un diagnóstico de la comunicación ciudadana y participativa en cada región del planeta.

En su séptima conferencia, en Accra, Ghana, en 2008, la red se reunió durante cinco días, uno dedicado a visitar comunidades en el área de influencia de Radio Ada, pionera de las emisoras comunitarias de Ghana.

Finalmente, la reunión más reciente, en Colombia, agrupó a más de 120 participantes, entre ellos cerca de 40 internacionales, que llegaron de Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brasil, China, España, Estados Unidos, Francia, Ghana, Hungría, Inglaterra, México, Nicaragua, Noruega, Nueva Zelanda, Perú, Senegal y Uruguay. Durante cinco días, uno dedicado a visitar experiencias comunitarias, se llevaron a cabo plenarios, trabajos de grupo, proyecciones de video y talleres de capacitación.

Una de las características más notables de la red NuestrosMedios es su carácter horizontal y democrático. Carece de directiva y de institucionalidad formal, lo cual no le ha impedido hasta ahora demostrar una gran capacidad organizativa y de convocatoria. Al no disponer de financiamiento regular, la red opera con entera libertad y las decisiones se toman colectivamente.

Cada nueva conferencia se realiza a partir de la oferta que hace un comité local, constituido exclusivamente con el fin de garantizar la organización, la programación y la búsqueda de financiamiento, con apoyo de un comité internacional voluntario, que suele agrupar a quienes se han involucrado en la organización de anteriores reuniones. Esto significa que la sustentabilidad de la red depende exclusivamente de la voluntad de participación de sus miembros y del compromiso que voluntariamente adquieren para llevar adelante las actividades.

Los temas que son comunes a los participantes de la red NuestrosMedios parten de la necesidad de acercar la esfera académica a las prácticas concretas de comunicación para el cambio social. La red es ante todo un foro que propicia el diálogo sobre el fortalecimiento de la identidad, de la comunidad y de las alianzas; la participación en políticas y procesos de gobernabilidad; la diversidad cultural y de género, las diferentes visiones del mundo; el poder del arte y de la expresión estética; y el derecho a la comunicación de los pueblos, entre otros temas.

Las prácticas concretas de comunicación participativa, el activismo alternativo y la investigación comprometida con el cambio social son los puentes que permiten fortalecer los vínculos en la red, a la que constantemente se incorporan nuevos miembros, tanto de la academia como de los movimientos sociales y de comunidades indígenas. El carácter autorregulador y abierto de la red NuestrosMedios, así como la ausencia de un “centro” en la toma de decisiones, ha sido la principal garantía de su sustentabilidad.

Una de las iniciativas autogestionadas más interesantes de NuestroMedios es el Proyecto Global de Medios Alternativos, plataforma de comunicación en Internet que incluye un mapeo mundial de experiencias, una bibliografía especializada, blogs, cronologías de los medios alternativos y un “quién es quién” en la comunicación ciudadana y participativa. Para acceder y enriquecer esa base de datos basta ingresar a http://www.ourmedianetwork.org/wiki/start.

* Comunicador boliviano. Especializado en comunicación y desarrollo.

Orley Duran and Melba Quijano on the uses of definitions

From the Our Media Conference, Medellin, Colombia, July 2009

Rosamonde Anin Somuah Speaks about Community Radio

Rosamonde is a PHD student in Canada from Ghana.

John Downing on the Various Terms for Community Media

This interview was taped by Harold Secue and Victoria Maldonado in July, 2009, at the Our Media conference held in Medellin, Colombia. Many of the participants were asked which of the many terms (participatory media, citizens' media, social change media, etc) they preferred. John Downing is editing a book on Social Change media. Downing is the author of two volumes of Radical Media. He is a professor at the University of Southern Illinois.

Montes de Maria Colectivo de Comunicacion

Chilca, one of the students of the Escuela Audiovisual Infantil frames the shot. Photo from Tomando Conciencia

This July the Our Media group met in Medellin, Colombia. Among the presentations were films from Montes de Maria. Children at the Escuela Audiovisual Infantil in that region have made many films addressing issues of concern to children.
This interview with Maria Eugenia Lora Muñoz, who started as a student in the program, was produced by Victoria Maldonado and Harold Secué at the conference in Medellin. In it Maria Eugenia describes the workshops and how the themes and distribution means are chosen by the children themselves.
Monie listens to the community radio station. Photo from Tomando Conciencia

The following clip is part of a series made at the Escuela about the rights of children. Each episode of the series ilustrates one right. This one is about the right for children to have time to play and have friends.

Some of the films produced by the children are on youTube.

The school has a vegetable garden and this segment shows how a group of children gather ingredients to make soup, including unlocking the school to pick some tomatos.

A similar focus on food and school nutrition in New York City is in What's on Your Plate."The audience follows two seventh graders as they make the journey that food takes, from the farm to CSAs and farmer’s markets, to schools and into the home. Sadie and Safiyah meet all the people involved in feeding the tremendous appetite of nine million New Yorkers. Throughout the film, the girls explore some essential questions: Why does food that is bad for us exist? Why can’t everyone eat healthy, non-processed food all the time?"--From the Slow Food blog.

Our Media Meets in Colombia

For a look at the comprehensive program of this year's conference, go to http://www.ourmedianetwork.org/files/om8_program_0.pdf

Communique from the Our Media Conference in Ghana

We, academics, activists, artists and practitioners from 42 countries in six continents of the world, gathered at the OURMedia 7 conference in Accra, Ghana, from 11 to15 August 2008. We shared our work and pursued our ongoing dialogue on the achievements and challenges of our communities around the theme of "Identity, Inclusion and Innovation - Alternative Communication in a Globalized World."
OURMedia is an open, decentralized and non-hierarchical network created with the goal of bridging gaps and facilitating dialogue and collaboration among people like ourselves and the communities whose voices and experiences we seek to project. OURMedia 7 was the first time the network met in Africa since it was founded in 2001, the previous six conferences having been held in Washington, D.C.., USA; Barcelona, Spain; Barranquilla, Colombia; Porto Alegre, Brazil; Bangalore, India; and Sydney, Australia.
Together at OURMedia 7, we constructed a conference that strove to be in itself a mirror of alternative communication, not only reflecting through its content but also living out through its process the values of identity, inclusion and innovation.
OURMedia 7 highlighted the three sub-themes of Identity, Inclusion and Innovation as key dimensions of alternative communication in, for and towards an alternative world. The three sub-themes may be regarded as different faces of marginalization in a world where expression is becoming increasingly uniform, majorities are being excluded, and even exploited, and certain kinds of knowledge and experience are presented as having more value than others. At the same time, the assertion of identity, inclusion and innovation are the very sources of strength to overcome homogenization, exclusion and relegation.Interviewing for Radio Ada. Photo by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron
From the moment OURMedia 7 began and especially its opening invocation - a profound mix of poetry, oratory, song, drum and poignant bamboo flute (the atenteben) - we came to better understand and appreciate a world view overlooked or deliberately cast aside in a globalized world. A world view interconnected across time, rich in symbolism of image, rhythm and cadence, movement and flow, speech and silence. We were renewed and deepened by what we found. We realized even more how impoverished the globalized world being constructed by a few – with its packaged assumptions, assembly-line media and sound bites - has become.
We discussed vivid accounts of solid academic research, conscientious practice, or both, on alternative communication initiatives. These initiatives spanned the various parts of the world that we came from, from China to Australia to Turkey to Spain to Argentina to Guyana, to name only a few, and, of course, Africa. They covered a tremendous diversity, ranging from traditional media to new information and communication technologies: for example, indigenous symbols, street art, community theatre, community radio, film, and current new online media such as YouTube.
The accounts were often in the context of the different ways communities are violated – by endemic poverty, by the neglect of the state, by the outright or insidious take-over of corporate interests, by the indifference or sensationalism of the mainstream media, by armed conflict brought about by a combination of these and other factors. In every case, more powerful were the stories of how alternative communication, by enabling people to take control of the primary act of communication, defy even seemingly insurmountable obstacles to preserve and enrich what matters most to them as communities. In every case, what mattered was not the technology but the extent to which people, and especially those traditionally excluded, had equitable access to create through communication. Community Radio Worker who is Continuity Announcer at Radio ADA in Ghana
We celebrated the 10th anniversary of Radio Ada, a pioneer community radio station in Ghana, at a Community Radio Symposium on its home soil in Ada in the Dangme East District. We were honoured with a regal welcome from traditional custodians and leaders of its catchment area - chiefs and queenmothers and their elders in regalia. We engaged with some of the communities served by Radio Ada and found reaffirmation that our reason for being is in what we mean to our communities. DIALOGUE WITH RADIO ADAPhoto by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron
In dialogue with us through volunteer producers acting as interpreters, members of these communities reiterated the powerful sentiment in the video documentary shown on Radio Ada: "If you take Radio Ada away from us, we would lose our language, we would lose our culture, we would lose who we are." We were heartened that Radio Ada is but one of the living examples of participatory communication institutions within the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) and indeed, within the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).
We provided the forum for the Africa observance of the 25th anniversary of AMARC. We marked how AMARC has grown in those 25 years from a handful to over 4,000 Community Radio stations in 115 countries across the globe, many of them in Africa. The depth of the organization was evident in the workshops AMARC organized as part of OURMedia 7 on democratic legislation, women's empowerment and good governance, social impact assessment, and digitalization. A key element of the observance was a workshop of representative members to sharpen the vision for a Community Radio Network in Africa as part of the process of rebuilding AMARC Africa. Participants came out of the workshops with greater clarity, confidence and oneness of purpose, building a solid foundation for the renaissance of AMARC Africa.
OURMedia 7 deepened our respect even more for the tenacity and innovativeness of our communities in asserting their identity and their right to inclusion. At the same time, we were again made aware of the importance of empowering legislation and regulation. We heard about and joined with others worldwide in expressing solidarity with the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria, from the evidence shut down since 2003 simply for keeping alive the language and culture of the Basque people. On a positive note, we applauded the agreement between GCRN and the national regulatory authority of Ghana on a development plan for approximately 100 Community Radio stations nationwide. We were also buoyed by news that the national regulatory authority of Uruguay had allocated a third of the frequency band to community media, including community television.
Being in Africa, we call especially on African governments to effect or consistently implement legislation that specifically addresses the needs of community media, thereby realizing the commitment made in their own declarations. We recall, in particular, the 1990 African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation (Arusha, Tanzania), the 2001 African Charter on Broadcasting (Windhoek, Namibia), the 2002 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa of the Africa Commission on Human and People’s Rights (Banjul, The Gambia), and most recently the communiqué from the 2008 World Press Freedom Day (Maputo, Mozambique)..
In an inequitable world where technical and financial assistance can play a critical leveraging role, we also call on donors and aid organisations to recognize that the very process of communication is not only at the heart of development, but is itself development. We ask them to extend their active support to people-centred-and-led media and communication, not just as a means to development ends, but as an embodiment of true participation and sustainability. We urge them to develop their own communication policies and strategies in coherence with their willingness to support participatory and inclusive processes of social change.
Coming to a slice of Africa, experiencing firsthand its dynamism and challenges and joining it with the vigorous reality of alternative communication and media throughout the world, impacted deeply on all of us.
We call on each other:
· to keep alive the memory and experiences of OURMedia 7 to strengthen our resolve to facilitate the use of communication to build just, sustainable and genuinely democratic communities
· to work harder to foster dialogue and mutual learning across our great diversity and in specific fields, as for example, across the academic disciplines of communication and education
· to reinforce our support for each other and others everywhere in strengthening organic social movements invigorated by communication that embodies the values of Identity, Inclusion and Innovation
· in particular to contribute to the growth and expansion of our network, OURMedia, maintaining its horizontal structure and its democratic values.
Already, showing the vitality of our network, expressions of interest from other parts of the world have been raised to host our next conference, OURMedia 8. We look forward to another opportunity to learn about, celebrate and move forward the agenda of empowering people to assert and create their world through their media.Wilna and Alex Quarmyne, founder of Radio ADA. It was at Pacifica's Los Angeles affiliate – KPFK – that Alex Quarmyne, a young Ghanaian studying at the University of Southern California in the1960s, first gained experience working in community radio. Alex and his wife, Wilna – who was a community radio pioneer in her native Philippines – are the founders Radio Ada and the Ghana Community Radio Network.