CBC Radio Archives

Farm Forum broadcast, courtesy CBC Radio-1

11 April, 2013, Micheal Enright's program, rewind, aired selections from the former CBC program Farm Forum, exploring issues of war time production (WW II), the changing economics of farming, the roles of women and children on the farm, the role of religion and the church in rural farm life, and so on.

This broadcast brings back so many memories -- even for me (born long afterwards).  Should women work off the farm?  What about softball games on Sundays?  Were farmers fairly compensated for privations during the war?  Sex?

Take a moment, grab a cup of coffee (or for some of you, reach into that treasured stash of POSTUM) and take a listen.

Click here to listen:  Micheal Enright, CBC Radio-1, "Rewind: Farm Forum 1941-1965"


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Swartz's Legacy: Public Goods and Private Profits

Aaron Swartz courtesy London Guardian

en Eenhaundel 

 Of increasing concern to the Internet Generations has been the conflict between the rights of the individual and protection of the public or communal good against the means and goals of private enterprise (a wealthy few) to benefit from manipulation of the individual and exploitation of public resources.  Far from being a new fad or youthful preoccupation, this is merely the latest battle between privilege and the profit of the few against the common rights and dignity of the individual and recognition of the shared access to and interest in the common good.  The only difference between the Internet cultural conflicts of the early 21^st Century and struggles against religious oppression and royal prerogative in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries, and between the individual and Big Business in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries  is the public resource over which the battles are being fought.

    Reminiscent of former struggles against Borgia Popes or against the censors of l’ancien regime, the last two months have witnessed seemingly excessive efforts on the part of United States Feds to exert the full might, power and authority of their government against the lives and ideals of two rather ordinary young men on behalf of American Big Business interests in the media, culture and formal economy.  These youth represent a sort of Robin Hood versus the ‘Man’ in the complicated but lucrative world of the modern Internet.  Both stories have, however, come to rather different conclusions – one malféant being forgiven and the other hopelessly determining to end an extremely promising and rather gifted life in suicide.

A Divided Kingdom?

The Divided Kingdom, à Church of Latter Day Saints.

 Legacies of Division

 It has been a busy month – the Wenger Mennonites, Sam Mullet’s guilty sentence for in-faith hate crimes and an informative roundtable with AIMM representatives and church leaders from Burkina Faso and Congo / Zaire.  What do all three of these events have in common?  They all deal directly with the Mennonite culture’s legacy of division.

    This morning (being Sunday, 23 Sept), I lay in bed listening to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)’s broadcast of Krista Tippett’s interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly and Gabe Lyons, founder of “Q,” an Emergent Evangelical group.

    Tippett focuses on three topics – namely the efforts by Daly and Lyons to create a new, impactful and yet more caring and human face of Evangelicalism, on their outreach to gays, pro-Choicers and Muslims (the perceived traditional enemies of Focus on the Family and faithful Evangelicals everywhere) and the controversy this new leadership has generated between generations within the American Evangelical movement.  (For instance, Daly indicates that 65% of Evangelicals under the age of 35 support the concept of gay marriage – currently an almost violently divisive issue in Minnesota’s current electoral cycle.) 

CBC-1 -- the Loewen Farm, Saskatchewan, (Pt 1)

Living Out Loud, CBC-1: Farewell to the Farm, Back to the Land


    This should really be a recommendation but is so effective at bringing back memories that it needs its own posting -- a transcript someday would be amazing.  The program is a two part presentation programmed for CBC-1's Living Out Loud.

    Thank you CBC-1, Stacey and the Loewen family.

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