Editorial

Friedrich Koenig’s steam-powered press (circa 1810) was the first non-manpowered printing press, quadrupling efficiency to 1100 prints per hour. This began the long process of making newspapers available to a mass audience, which in turn helped spread literacy.

by Corey Matsumoto

This month is dedicated to the written word. Poetry, fiction, song lyrics, letters (and yes, even opinion letters and informative articles) are all forms of self-expression that help define our culture. The inaugural Youth Peace-Poetry contest, affiliated with the International Peace Poem Project based in Hawai’i and hosted by the Powell River Live Poets’ Guild, was held last month at local schools, encouraging our youth to express their thoughts on peace in wonderfully abstract ways. You’ll find winning entries featured in this issue, along with winning pieces from the fifth annual Powell River Festival of Writers.

We’re proud to announce this 10th issue of Immanence, marking a full year of publication. It’s also the first issue off our new printer, thus heralding the return of locally produced and printed independent media to Powell River. Owning our own printer reduces our printing costs to the cost of paper and consumables only. This allows us to reduce further the cost of the ads that keep Immanence going. Providing affordable advertising for local business has been an underlying goal since the magazine’s inception a year ago, and now month-long exposure can be had for as little as $40. That is indeed something to celebrate.
Look for exciting changes in the design of our June, 2008, issue as we usher in a second year of publication with a brand new look incorporating my new-found knowledge of eco-design. Designing to reducing our consumption of consumables (ie. toner) will not only save us money, but will reduce our carbon footprint.

April 22 is Earth Day. Billions of dollars have been spent by the corporate world over the decades to program us to believe that living in a disposable world is convenient. If you think about the purchases you have made over the years, you might realize that you’ve made many companies rich by purchasing trash over, and over, and over again without a second thought. It’s time to rethink for ourselves.

by Eva van Loon

Spring’s a season of thanks as well as getting down in the dirt for the biz of
growing fresh crops. At Immanence we want to thank our enthusiastic readers, downloaders and contributors for helping us through the magazine’s first winter. It isn’t easy for small mags to stay in the black dirt of solvency, but with community response and a lot of volunteerism, we made it, and are happy to announce that not only has Immanence recently given birth to a litter of fresh ideas but it is now very close to owning its own printer to act as nanny for those frisky new notions. If all goes well, our May issue will announce the return of locally printed independent media to Powell  River.

It has come to our attention (again) that some of our fellow citizens believe Immanence takes  positions. Some folks believe the magazine is anti-mill, or anti-this-or-that.

The idea of Immanence in our community might be, as people used to say, as clear as mud.

Let’s get a grip: if our mill quit operating, it would be a disaster for everyone in Powell River, not to mention the end of a happy era. Who wants that? Nobody.

by Eva van Loon

...are we doing?

BC Liberals just flew 5 planeloads of humans to Hudson’s Hope to deliver a news release.
Wouldn’t TV, Youtube, Facebook, or even old–fashioned newspapers or the steps of the Legislature have served? A single plane flight uses 3.5 years of an individual’s carbon emissions—who initialed this cost on poor old Earth’s carbon-balance sheet?

Must be some event, you’re thinking. Some earth-shaking, mind-bogglingly new approach to sustainability. A harbinger of a healthier long–term way to save our province from becoming industrial wasteland. Wow! Wish I were in Hudson. Hope for this!

Hearing the announcement on beleaguered CBC, I thought I’d been taking crazy pills. Gone partly deaf or missed April Fool’s. Or I’d slipped over into Alzheimer’s and was reliving the Seventies. Site C? They’re going ahead with that damned dam in the north? Again? Didn’t my generation win that battle 40 years ago?

Another battle ahead. Last year, 700 rivers proposed for exploitation. This year, Site C. The same tired justifications: “good” short-term jobs, steady resource base, future need—as if we can increase population without end. However, the PIPs (People in Power) are not so naive as in our longhaired days—every proposal is first greenwashed, so that it’s easier to make prudent questioners look like idiots.

We are welcoming the year 2010 with a fiery issue—just in time for Valentine’s Day. Our burning desire for love and acceptance is largely what drives us to do the things we do (and us humans do some pretty strange things). However, this issue is not about love, chocolates or frivolous cardboard cutout hearts—and the title on this cover page has nothing to do with sex.

Fire carries with it strong (often polar) emotional connotations. We humans have a delicate affinity for the element that can bring warmth and comfort to our homes just as easily as is can destroy them.

There are many parallels to this delicate symbiosis in our daily lives. We are burning up the earth little by little (and more than a few cultures along the way) in order to keep the furnace of capitalism nice and toasty for us. Over time, billions of cups of coffee have been savored at the expense of vast rainforests and inadequately compensated human toil. The Canadian tar-sands projects are keeping homes warm this winter at the expense of our treasured boreal forest, not to mention the toxic “cleansing” of the area by poisoning drinking water used by local natives.

Assuming that we all call the earth our home, it’s not at all a stretch to say that we’ve set fire to a spare bedroom in order to keep the house comfortably warm. And although it seems that many terrible things are out of our control, it’s important to realise that we are all stoking the fire in some way.

by Eva van Loon

“Water is best,” goes the ancient Greek proverb. As a teen, I thought it a dumb saying. The best as compared to what?

It stuck in memory as I learned that water covers 71% of the planet, that 97% of the water is ocean (not counting polar ice!) and people consist mostly of water, 55% to 78%.

An alarming discovery was the short time it takes for a human being to die of thirst as opposed to hunger: only three or four increasingly painful days, while we can last for weeks without food. Drinking seawater or urine only makes things worse. Where drought is marching across the land, as in Somalia, people are already dying of thirst every day, while on the Sunshine Coast we go about our lives, swilling down coffee, soda and juices as if there’s no tomorrow, forgetful that each human life depends utterly on ingesting two to three litres of water every single day.

Put so starkly, that fact sends me straight to the cold-water tap with a “Thank you, Dr. Suzuki,” for pointing out recently that our tap water is a wonderful healthy blessing and that, while we can still call this treasure our own, we neither need nor want bottled water trucked in.

ClimateWizard is a new online toy that will predict changes in temperature and precipitation—precious water—in a given area for 2050 and 2100. For now, it’s mostly good for the US, but even so, the expected desertification is mind-boggling. Not that I didn’t know that places like Australia, Maui, and California are already burning up, or that there are predictions out there that the West Coast will lose 30% of its annual precipitation, but it was a shock to see that big red knob of heat and dryness on the map, right up to the Canadian border. We’re fools if we think nobody’s going to be panting after our water.

Many people had been asking about Immanence Magazine. We’ve had to take a brief hiatus, but are back in action after the completion of our new office and production headquarters at 4691 Marine Avenue (across from the Jailhouse Cafe). The space is shared with CMG Printing and Neko Rei Music Production, and is open for walk–in traffic Thursdays and Fridays from 10–5pm, and 11–4pm on Saturdays. Come by and have a look next time you’re on Marine.

CMG Printing is a new endeavor of Core Media Group (the production company that designs and prints Immanence and a proprietorship of Corey Matsumoto). A print shop that offers 100% recycled paper as standard stock is an exciting prospect, however a busy print shop means reduced time for the behind-the-scenes work that makes each issue of Immanence Magazine possible. As a result the magazine is moving to a quarterly publication schedule, rolling with the seasons and enabling us to produce a fatter magazine packed-full of well-written, informative articles.

We also have an announcement about an exciting new program called the Powell River Sustainability Stakeholders (PRSS) that rewards local shoppers for working towards local sustainability. All are encouraged to sign up for the program—not only to save money at participating businesses, but also as a way to show support for the local sustainability movement and help keep Immanence Magazine on the fore-front of engaging independent media in Powell River. See page 31 and 32 for more details or visit www.immanence.ca

We hope you enjoy this Fall issue—the largest issue we’ve put out so far.

Many people are wondering "What's happening with Immanence Magazine?

Our new office space at 4691 Marine Avenue (shared with CMG Printing) opened August 21, 2009. CMG Printing is the designer/printer/manufacturer of Immanence Magazine, and as a result of increased work load at the print shop we have shifted the magazine to a quarterly publication schedule.

Immanence Magazine will now roll out with the seasons on the solstices and equinoxes of each year.

We've also been working hard behind the scenes to establish an exciting new program called the Powell River Sustainability Stakeholders.
The PRSS is designed to encourage local shopping, permaculture (permanently sustainable agriculture), and the sharing of knowledge, ideas and opinions in search of solutions to the many problems we face in our community.
We are delaying the release of the Fall issue of Immanence Magazine until we have given as many local businesses as possible a chance to sign up.

Just for info MCP hsn't abandon Jump it is in a transition period there are 2 proposals to take over so before something is printed maybe you should do some research before you print.

Welcome to our new website. There are more features to be added, such as our online store which will enable subscription and back issue purchasing, as well as enable direct purchasing of classified ads. The Article Database has a ton of updating still, but I hope to have it up to date within a week.

Enjoy the site and the information is has to offer, and please consider posting your writings for the benefit of all. It's easy to do, free, and you can choose to have your writings considered for publication in our print issue.

Thanks for visiting Immanence Magazine Online!
–Corey Matsumoto

by Corey Matsumoto

The written word is a powerful tool for expressing ideas. In essence, Immanence is an open, safe forum for sharing ideas, opinions, and knowledge from all members of our community. We accept writings from anyone who shares our interest in spreading new ideas—even if it challenges our own belief systems. It is through new (often radical) ideas that societies progress and develop.

Some members of our community may reject certain articles (or the magazine as a whole) based on the past writings of one or more of our contributors. This is unfortunate, but nevertheless we will continue to publish writings, without censorship, from anyone, except that the libellous, fraudulent, or unlawful will be edited out or, if that is not possible, the piece will be rejected.

Immanence is proud to be Powell River’s truly independent community medium. We hope you learn as much from each issue as we do.