Wed, 25 Jul 2007
Philadelphia Urban Farms Bike Tour
As my first adventure in long distance, group bicycling, me and Eylem
attended Philadelphia Urban Farms Bike Tour organized by Chris Hill of
Weaver's Way Co-op . I was being lazy - huh, I biked ~30 miles! - so I
did not bring my camera along (mistake), but I brought my gps along -
hey, do not blame me, I was afraid, I would be totally lost somewhere
on the way to West Philadelphia from Mt Airy. Anyway, we made the
whole way, biked some extra at the end to Market East station since we
chickened out from biking home from north Philly. It was fun, it was
educational, it was tiring but it was rewarding too since it was the
longest we ever biked and first time in a group. I hope to do it
again. And hey, urban farms, they are great things. I hope they spread
and they succeed in their aims.
So, the point of this entry, I finally uploaded my gps map which is
superimposed onto google maps: Bread Crumbs showing the route we took
I said I was lazy right? So I am copying from Weaver's Way homepage,
here is info about the farms:
- The Weavers Way Co-op Farm is a one and a half acre organic (not
certified) farm that supplies the well-known food cooperative with
vegetables and flowers throughout the growing season. The Farm is
managed by David Zelov, a Co-op staff person. The farm is located
in East Mt. Airy's Awbury Arboretum, near Chew and Washington
Lane. Click here for more on the farm's history.
- The Mill Creek Farm is a collectively run urban education farm
that utilizes vacant land to improve local access to nutritious
foods and to promote sustainable resource use by growing and
distributing produce and by demonstrating ecological methods of
living. Run with enthusiasm and creativity by co-managers Jade and
Johanna, the farm sells produce on location twice a week, sells to
nearby Mariposa Co-op, and has an on-site building featuring a
living roof, composting toilet and straw and mud walls. Click here
for more about Mill Creek Farm.
- Mary Seton Corboy co-founded Greensgrow Farms in 1997 with the
idea of selling right off the farm produce to Philadelphia chefs
from an abandoned property in Kensington, within site of
Philadelphia's downtown. Today Greensgrow is a nationally
recognized leader in urban farming, still selling to local
restaurants (including Django, White Dog, Fork, Standard Tap,
Little Fish, Rose Tattoo, and Beau Monde) but also open to the
public from early spring through Thanksgiving. A small but
dedicated staff runs a multifaceted operation, including a
nursery, a farm market, and a Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA) program, proving that abandoned land is only abandoned if we
choose to leave it that way. Click here for more on Greensgrow
Farms.
- Spring Gardens, at 18th & Wallace Streets, is a mature,
lovingly tended community garden between Spring Garden and
Fairmount on 18th Street.
(and ahem, we also visited Yard's brewery.
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Tue, 17 Jul 2007
[N]on-non-[G]overnmental [O]rganizations
I knew it very well that the acronym NGO stood for
"Non-non-Governmental-Organization" (let's call it a "NnGO") in Cyprus
so there is nothing suprising about the latest developments in the
"This Homeland is Ours" (Bu Memleket Bizim Platformu or BMBP)
platform. The platform which functioned as a united front for various
trade-unions, foundations and opposition (left) political parties
during last few years of Denktash's reign was always dominated by CTP
and their ilk. However, it succeeded in playing a leadership role
during the era of "large rallies", and produced some radical and
progressive declarations and actions. I had a few words to say about
it in my
article This Homeland is Ours" said the masses; Turkish Cypriot Uprising of 2002-3.
Anyway, before I digress into a story of the pathetic condition of
political atmosphere in north Cyprus in general, let me get to the
point. While all this was happening, Denktash, Eroglu etc and company,
i.e. those puppets who also proudly call themselves the "nationalist
right" responded by their own versions of platforms with even larger
number of organizations (organizations come a dime a dozen in north
Cyprus). Ofcourse, it was totally bogus and had no support from the
public. It was a perfect example of a
"Non-non-Governmental-Organization" and BMBP used to complain about
this. However, as CTP slowly drifted to power with support from the
puppeteer, i.e. Republic of Turkey, BMBP also drifted towards becoming
a NnGO itself and more radical groups, such as the New Cyprus Party
did the right thing as left the BMBP (this was a notable event, and
see the article I mention above for why). BMBP continued to function,
albeit without much of an impact or without the old radical
outbursts. This changed recently after CTP's "neo-Denktashism" became
so blatantly obvious and with the new "social security reform" package
hit the workers that the trade-unions represented right at
home. Specially the famous teacher's unions (e.g. KTOS and KTOEOS) who
were always at the fronts when it came to radical politics, organized
protests against CTP and became very outspoken. They then dared to
turn BMBP into a real NGO instead of a NnGO by suggesting the
expulsion of CTP.
Duh, wasn't that the obvious thing to suggest? Apparently, not,
because all the other puppet organizations that are attached to CTP
via their umbilical cords could not stand it, and neither did CTP's
hardened "communist" (hahah!) militants. They thought that it is
perfectly fine for the governing party to be part of a NGO and refused
the accusation of it being a NnGO. Hahah. One after another CTP's
heavy weights spoke and made amusing statements claiming that
trade-unions are not the important organization but rather the
political parties. I am reading this on Yeniduzen, which has the motto
"work is the highest value" ("emek en yuce degerdir"). The problem
according to Kalyoncu, is not with the CTP (ok, let's leave out the
absurd "-BG" tag which makes them sound like He-Man) but with the
platform which refuses to know its own country and is not willing to
accept the conditions on the ground. Hahah. Well, Mr Kalyoncu, why
don't you continue playing the role of a government and leave alone
this NGO and see what public says instead of making such statements?
Ahmet Barcin's statement was particulary amusing because he was one of
the radicals in BMBP, in the front lines before he sat on a seat in
the parliament. He saying that expulsion of CTP from the platform is
the biggest insult ant disrespect to the Turkish Cypriot
public. Really? Few years ago Turkey's strong grip, the Turkish army,
the "one who is gone and one who replaced him are both Turks" were the
insults he was talking about. Now, he thinks having a governing party
in an NGO is normal, the opposite is the biggest insult and disrespect.
What can I say, this "neo-Denktashism" is an amusing concept and they
are doing their past to prove more radicals like myself who used to
say "neener, neener, neener, these are all NnGO's, we want NGO's"
right.
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Sat, 07 Jul 2007
Link to Photos from Pivot Based Blog
Link to Old Photos Posted to my old Blog
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About/Colophon
ABOUT/COLOPHON
I gave
up on Pivot and moved to Blosxom . Will post local
content ("Cyprus Page"), external links and comments about
Cyprus. Tips and tricks and comments about LaTeX and
Linux. Photography --> single blog-like and galleries. My comments
about human-rights, news etc. i.e. RANDOM as always. You do not
believe me? Notice a deliberate mistype in the URLs.
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Migration to Blosxom
I have mostly completed the migration of my blog to Blosxom. Pivot was
giving me lots of troubles and eventhough blosxom is half-dead
project, it is simple and conversion was relatively painless. Also,
blosxom is more transparent to me since it is a simple perl script.
See more ...
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