Chaia Heller spoke at the Universalist Unitarian Church and laid it out. Avoiding the short-sided view that by

labeling, regulating or outlawing the particular technological industry known as Bio-Tech, we are not solving the

problem. She outlined the idea that through biotech, and other information -based economies that started up in the

US after WWII, we have created a world where corporations have found ways to profit from every aspect of

human life, turning us into consumers, not citizens. She called for not only the end of BioTech but a blossoming of

citizen based democracy movement in this country that takes the power back from the corporations and puts it into

every citizen and every communitites life. Shaping this vision further, she acknowledged that for this democracy to

flourish, it must have a global consciousness. Noting that there are small pockets of citizen dem,ocracy left in the

UUS, in town councils, meeting halls and social movements throughout the US, she sharpened this vision further.

These little snippets are not bad as a way of giving people

the gist of discussions like this, without us having to

wade through the entire thing at once.

On a side note, a couple things really distracted me by

this article, one of which was no fault of the author,

the other of which could have been solved by just a bit

of proofreading.

First: typos. I'm not a nit-picker, and we all make 'em.

But many things make it painfully obvious that the piece

was written in excessive haste, driving me to distraction.

Consider, for instance, the line,

"Avoiding the short-sided view that by labeling, regulating

or outlawing the particular technological industry known as

Bio-Tech, we are not solving the problem. She outlined the

idea that through biotech, and other information -based

economies that started up in the US after WWII, we have

created a world where corporations have found ways to

profit from every aspect of human life, turning us into

consumers, not citizens."

The author fixed a run-on sentence, not by shortening it

into distinct, grammatically correct sentences, but by

inserting a period into a sentence at a point that left it

incomplete and ungrammatical. And in the course of writing

it, the author failed to notice that with the accidental

inclusion of one little "not," (s)he actually was writing

the exact opposite of what she meant. (Also, she meant

"shortsighted," not "short-sided.")

Second, there's a problem caused here by the indymedia

software that is no fault of the author. Depending on

browsers and settings, you often wind up with staircase

output on your screen that looks like this (because of

the vagaries of indymedia software, I don't know if this

will end up demonstrating the effect on your screen or

not)

Example of a staircase effect that makes

the resulting

text much harder to read, possibly leading

the reader to

go on to the next article in frustration

because the hard

-to-read

format gives them a headache and that's a

shame

because they may end up missing a real good

article.

It's clearly a defect or limitation in the indymedia

software that's apparent to anyone who has spent much

time perusing indymedia websites. Hopefully, one of us

more tech-savvy types will get around soon to figuring

out a solution to the problem if there is one.

On another side note, I'm curious why the author chose

to draw pictures, as if in a courtroom, instead of taking

simple photos. Did someone in attendance object to photos

being taken at the event?

I chose to draw because I am interested in investigating other forms of reportage. Why do we priveledge photos, especially in a digigital age when photos can be manipulated with many different programs?

Also, as indymedia reporter, who are we reporting to? The uninitiated public, the learned activist community or both? Can we do things that speak in different formats besides the blood and guts photos? We can explore a wide range of news-like expression.

Court-reporter, maybe.

that would be http://www.social-ecology.org.

:)