by Austin Kelley

World Vision International, despite it's voluminous PR machine, has long been notorious as a right-wing Christian charity with an extensive history of working worldwide with the CIA, the State Department, and other such agents of US Imperialism. "Salsa So Fresh," made in Shelton, and sold at the Olympia Food Co-op, proudly advertises World Vision as benefiting financially from each sale, and goes on to advertise worldvision.org on each tub of this salsa fresca, for allegedly being an organization that is getting at "the root causes of poverty."

There is a significant concern in this, in that our Co-op has long declared an anti-oppression policy as being central to every aspect of its being, beginning with staff-hiring and training procedures, going on to and including a frequently used policy through which products are continued or discontinued based on social justice criteria. Last November, I was shocked to read the text on the Salsa So Fresh label, which boasts of things clearly in direct contradiction to the Co-op's stated principles. Each tub carries a folksy prose which tells not only the tale of how the couple who own the business first made fresh salsa at a church social and then, because it tasted so good, went on to manufacture it for sale, choosing to donate a portion of each sale to the charity, World Vision. Their advertising seems to imply that not only is this a special food, but that it is also a product based on especially ethical practices, one which benefits our world with each sale.

The contradictions with the Co-op's operating principles seemed glaringly obvious, and so I reported this troubling information through the appropriate channels by filling out the customer feedback form on display at the Eastside Co-op. I expected a prompt reply and the same sort of decisive action as has happened with many other products, but received no reply. After several weeks, I filled out a form at the Westside Co-op, but still received no reply. Concurrent with this process, another concerned community member began filling out the appropriate forms, but also received no reply. This was the beginning of a very long and frustrating process, one with which I have persisted these last eleven months or so. I am given to understand that the two committees that reviewed this matter have responded and have decided thus far not to take action.

Read more:

INTRO: Al Jazeera International (aka: Al Jazeera English) launches Nov. 15, 2006. Al Jazeera is bankrolled from the Emir of Qatar's vast fortune and will remain free from commercial sponsorship or advertiser concerns. Therefore, expect more graphic and controversial content than what Western audiences are accustom to.

BIG NAME REPORTERS: Senior British journalist Sir David Frost (BBC), the only person to have interviewed the last seven US presidents and the last six British prime ministers. Frost will interview UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on the first day the channel launches. Frost says he investigated al-Jazeera with his own high-level contacts in Whitehall and Washington to make sure it had no terrorist connection before signing to work for them.

The other big name reporter will be Josh Rushing, a former United States Marine Captain who was a press officer for United States Central Command during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He became famous for his appearance in the documentary Control Room, which documented his conversations with Al Jazeera correspondent Hassan Ibrahim. After the Pentagon ordered him not to comment on the movie he left the Marine Corps and signed up with Al Jazeera.

HOW TO WATCH IN THE USA: The best way to watch the channel will be through a live broadband stream from it's website. The website will also offer RSS feeds, e-mail newsletters and interactive discussion boards. No major US cable company is brave enough to broadcast the channel just yet. It was revealed that the US cable network Comcast had pulled out of talks to carry the channel, citing lack of capacity. In the US it will be available to customers of GlobeCast, the subsidiary of a French company that offers satellite TV service costing around $300 (€230) to install. Other companies include Fision, a digital service that will be available shortly in Houston; Jump TV, which describes itself as "the world's leading broadcaster of ethnic TV over the Internet; and www.VDC.com, a service that offers TV on the Internet to about 10,000 customers in the U.S.

I  was elated when KUOW purchased KVSN-AM (1340) for rebroadcasting in the Oly area (see the Seattle Times radio beat). And I wasn't at all bummed that the signal would be over AM waves (see ibid, headline concludes "but on AM").

I enjoy listening to AM radio when the content is as good as what KUOW generally delivers (I even like it when the content isn't so good, but that's personal). I like the sound quality, which for me is the quality of being in a little one room cabin on a stormy night or camping out in the backyard as a kid and keeping company with the radio so I wouldn't get freaked out by the quiet.

I've been perplexed and a little worried this week (and parts of last) to hear no signal (just static) from my radio each morning and evening I tune to 1340. What happened? Is this a repeat of KEXPs cruel toying with us when they used the old Bates Technical College signal and then, bam, walked away?

One simple check of KUOW's site quelled my worries:

Due to power-outages in Tumwater, KUOW 1340 AM is off the air.

OlyBloggers in Tumwater (TumBloggers?) - is the power back on yet? What's the forecast?

Although some soldiers have fled the country, gone absent without leave, claimed conscientious-objector status or taken illegal drugs to avoid Iraq service, Watada said, it was never his aim to avoid combat per se.

"I felt I could never do any of that personally because I needed to take a stand and hold people accountable for this illegal and immoral war," he said. "It all boils down to 'What is the purpose of a soldier and officer?' And that is to serve the American people."

Found (again) Community.

Thank you Rick!

-go econo