Daily News

posted on Oct. 2: Opponent of Sardar Sarovar Dam (India) speaks at McMaster tonight

A key activist in the movement to oppose one of the world's largest river development projects is this year's Mahatma Gandhi lecturer. Medha Patkar, a strategist with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), will give the fifth Annual Mahatma Gandhi lecture on Non-violence at 7:30 p.m. tonight in JHE-376. The NBA is a people's movement organized to stop the construction of a series of dams on the Narmada River, India's largest west-flowing river. Since 1985, Patkar and NBA have been holding peaceful marches and rallies to protest the Narmada Valley Development Project, in particular the building of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The dam would submerge more than 37,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land and displace 320,000 people. Patkar, who has been beaten and arrested for her actions, also conducted a number of protest fasts during the early 1990s.

posted on Oct. 2: University’s future could include downtown Hamilton

In a proposal to be presented at Hamilton-Wentworth regional council on Tuesday, Oct. 3, the University is requesting that the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth donate the former Wentworth County courthouse property to McMaster for 10 years as a leadership gift to the Changing Tomorrow Today campaign. "McMaster has worked with city and regional officials for the past year to develop a way for the University to help revitalize downtown Hamilton," says President Peter George. "The courthouse is an ideal location for the University, and will provide the space we will require over the next decade. It is also a chance for the University and the new City of Hamilton to work together to build and sustain economic growth." While no final decisions have been made regarding which areas at McMaster may move to a downtown location, the preference is to relocate units or parts of units that have expressed a desire to move, or whose activities would be enhanced by closer links to the community.

posted on Sept. 29:McMaster launches Web site and six-part television series

It's new, it's Canadian and it's coming to a computer screen near you, then to the television screen of Vision TV. The Medieval Women Web site http://mw.mcmaster.ca was officially launched on Friday, Sept. 29 in conjunction with an upcoming six-part television series co-produced by Redcanoe Productions and McMaster University's Faculty of Humanities. It is the University's first foray into television production. "There is a huge interest in medieval times as we explore the new millennium," says Kathy Garay, member of McMaster's Working Group on the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Employing sophisticated, state-of-the-art technology the animated Web site incorporates virtual reality, video and audio. It presents a thoroughly modern recreation of a medieval world, with women's lives as its focus. It is designed for the curious and the scholarly alike. With just a click of a mouse, visitors can experience life in a nunnery, play authentic medieval games or set off on a pilgrimage. The six-part television series begins airing Wednesday, Oct. 4 on Vision TV. It was produced by Hamilton's Redcanoe Productions in association with Vision TV, the Women's Television Network and the Faculty of Humanities. CBC's Avril Benoit narrates each of the television programs in the series which provides insights into another world and time, and also reveals much about our own.