First of all, I would recommend the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) website, especially its radio news and information programmes.
http://www.cbc.ca/ The CBC is a national, government-owned broadcasting system (similar to the BBC in the UK), which operates two Canada-wide television networks (one in English, one in French), and five radio networks: two in English (CBC Radio One and Radio Two), two in French and Radio Canada International, which broadcasts on short-wave in a variety of languages.
The first of these four radio networks can be accessed live on the Internet from anywhere in the world. The English live broadcasts can be found at:
http://www.cbc.ca/listen/ CBC Radio One's programmes are localised according to the time zone, so if you miss a programme from Ottawa (let's say) at noon Eastern Time, you can pick it up an hour later (noon Central Time) in Winnipeg, or even 3 hours later (noon Pacific Time) from the Vancouver link.
CBC Radio Two's programmes (mostly classical music and jazz) are the same all across the country -- they are accessible on the Internet only during their live broadcast in Eastern Time.
CBC's French networks can be accessed at:
http://www.radio-canada.ca/index.shtml Many programmes are available by podcast (subscribable through the site or through I-tunes), and are also broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 137. Or see the 'Archives' or 'Past shows' sections of the respective programme pages.
Now to some specific sites that might be of particular interest to your Lightworker Family:
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CBC - IDEAS (Radio One, Monday--Friday evenings 9-10 p.m.)
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/ In-depth studies of particular ideas in contemporary or historical world affairs (culture, arts, religion, science -- you name it!) The current ones on their site are most interesting: "Legends of the Kainai" (from Alberta First Nations peoples), "Sick people or sick societies" (discussing health as a social phenomenon), "How to think about science". (See 'Podcasts' there for other titles.)
CBC - TAPESTRY (Radio One, Sunday afternoons, 2-3 p.m. Eastern Time or 3-4 p.m. Pacific Time)
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/ A weekly exploration of spirituality, religion and the search for meaning. Many interesting programmes in the 'Past Shows' section of this site -- e.g. "The Kama Sutra", "The American Lama", "Jesus for the non-religious".
CBC - AS IT HAPPENS (Radio One, Monday--Friday evenings beginning at 6.30 p.m. for an hour or an hour and a half)
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/ Every evening the two hosts do telephone interviewers with major and minor newsmakers all over the world, on just about any topic you can name (political, scientific, cultural etc.). The interviews may last from 5 to 20 minutes. A part of the programme is devoted to audience feedback. This programme has been running for many, many years and is still one of the most popular on Canadian radio of all time.
CBC - THE VINYL CAFE (Radio One, Sunday afternoons, 12-1 p.m. & Tuesday nights, 11-12 p.m., also on Radio Two, Saturday mornings, 10-11 a.m.)
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php A mix of delightful stories (often humorous), essays (mostly by host Stuart McLean, a consummate story-teller and essayist) and music by contemporary Canadian artists. I do recommend subscribing to their podcast.
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ISKRA - VOICE OF THE DOUKHOBORS
http://www.iskra.ca/ The Doukhobors are a religious group that were persecuted for their beliefs in nineteenth-century Russia, very close in their outlook on life to the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, who responded to their plight and helped them emigrate to Canada in 1899. Both Tolstoy's and the Doukhobors' faith have much in common with the Ringing Cedars Series. In conjunction with the Slavic Research Group of the University of Ottawa (where I work) and its Director, world-renowned Tolstoy expert Andrew Donskov, I happen to have done considerable research and translation regarding the Doukhobors, especially their links to Tolstoy. "Iskra" is the name of their bi-weekly magazine, some articles from which are reproduced on their Internet site.
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MOLOKAN WEBSITE
http://www.molokane.org/ The Molokans are a group very close in outlook to the Doukhobors, who emigrated to America about the same time the Doukhobors came to Canada. Their website also includes many items relating to the Doukhobors. Again, a similarity with the Ringing Cedars Series is evident at times.
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CENTER FOR GLOBAL NON-VIOLENCE
http://www.globalnonviolence.org/index2.html A world-wide organisation based in Honolulu (Hawaii), dedicated to find peaceful ways of solving the world's problems. One ot its directors, Lou Ann Ha'aheo Guanson, was a special delegate to the Doukhobor Centenary Conference held at the University of Ottawa in 1999, celebrating the centenary of the Doukhobors' arrival in Canada.
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SPIRITUALITY.COM
http://www.spirituality.com This site features uplifting text and audio articles -- including weekly web-chats for anyone wishing to participate -- on a variety of topics presented by the Christian Science church (of which I happen to be a member ). As you can tell from my Afterword to Book 6 ("The Book of Kin"), I have found many of the ideas in the Ringing Cedars Series are similar to those I have learnt through my experience as a Christian Scientist (as with those I have discovered in the Doukhobor and Molokan faiths). There is a menu of several broad topics to choose from, or you can search for specific topics.
Typing 'environment' in the search-box for example, brings up a list of some 180 articles where the word is mentioned. Some of these will be more specifically related to the environment than others. Of particular interest is an archived audio-file (with transcribed text) of an 80-minute webchat (responding to listeners' questions) which aired last autumn, entitled "Prayer and the environment: spiritual solutions for a healthy planet". But there are many more items of interest under this topic.
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RACE ROCKS MARINE PRESERVE
http://www.racerocks.com/ This site offers a fascinating look at a marine preserve near Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They have a 'Video Archives' page that is worth exploring. But I especially recommend their Videocams, which includes Camera 5, a camera individual viewers can control (by turns) from their home computer, with pan and zoom features. This is fascinating!
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KARL BACKHAUS - MAGICAL MOON LAKE (BOOK)
http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BK875 This book was written by German-Canadian environmentalist and teacher Karl Backhaus before he learnt about the Ringing Cedars Series (of which he is now an avid reader). It describes how he set up what really amounts to his own 'domain' on several hectares of land in western Ontario (near Georgian Bay on Lake Huron) and made friends with the local wildlife. His outlook is very close to Megré's and Anastasia's. The book is listed in the catalogue of the PETA site (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). For information about PETA see:
http://www.peta.org/about/ *****
REVIEW OF THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES
http://www.gazette.uottawa.ca/article_e_1307.html A review by Tim Lougheed based on an interview with the Translator following the completion of the translation of the first five books. From the University of Ottawa Gazette of 9 November 2006. In the paper edition of the Gazette, the review was accompanied by an image of the front cover of Book 2.
Another review based on an interview with the Translator was published in French by Mado Sauvé in the Québec eco-magazine Le Journal Vert in the Spring of 2007. While it is not on-line, I have a pdf copy that Mme Sauvé has given me for sharing. I'd be happy to e-mail it to anyone for the asking (but note: it is in French only). Please contact me by e-mail at [jw (at symbol) kanadacha.ca] for a copy
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CITY OF OTTAWA PHOTO GALLERY
http://www.ottawa.ca/visitors/gallery/index_en.html Not all cities fit Megré's description in Chapter 13 of Book 8.1 of artificial stone mountains with hollowed-out burrows piled up one beside the other -- at least, that's far from being the whole city. I happen to love the city I live in, not the least for its many green areas that have been meticulously preserved here in the nation's capital by three levels of government (federal, provincial, municipal) and the National Capital Commission, charged with preserving a balance between technological progress and Nature. For almost its 50-kilometre length across the city, the southern banks of the Ottawa River are preserved as natural parkland for recreational use, as is much of the Rideau River that flows into it from the south. The Rideau Canal serves recreational boating in the summer and becomes an 8-kilometre-long ice-skating rink in the winter. Two good times to visit the city are the Winterlude Festival in early February, and the Tulip Festival in mid-May, thanks to the thousands of tulip bulbs the City has received over the past 50 years from the Netherlands government in gratitude for Canadian assistance in liberating that country in WW2 and for providing a safe haven for the Dutch royal family during the war. For a few weeks every May the whole city just blossoms into a multi-coloured sea of tulips. And then we have the Autumnal Colours season around our Thanksgiving holiday (the second Monday in October in Canada) in the nearby Gatineau Hills. We feel truly blessed by Nature here.
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JW's RUSSIAN CULTURE SITE
http://kanadacha.ca Finally, I might mention my own Russian Culture site, which features information about my translations (especially the Ringing Cedars Series) as well as about my poetry and music interests. There are sample music files linked from my "Poetry & Music" page, for example -- Russian folk songs with balalaika, along with piano improvisations (alone or accompanying spoken poetry). On my "Academic" page you will find a link to a paper entitled "Meaning and musicality: striking a balance in poetry translation", illustrated by the translation of one of Anna Akhmatova's poems. You'll find quite a few pages to explore.
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These are just a few of the links I have found interesting in my Internet experience. I hope you may find it useful to share any or all of them, as you wish, with the members of your Lightworkers family.
With kind regards,
John Woodsworth
Certified Translator (Russian-English)
Research Associate, Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa
Website:
http://www.kanadacha.ca Tel. 1 (613) 824-9148