Welcome to reginastreets.ca. The Regina Streets Magazine is an anti-poverty initiative that is published throughout the year by the Regina Street Magazine Inc. Founded in early 2008 by two young U of R grads, the RSM is a fiercely independent media source with no political or organizational affiliations. We are about hard work, opportunities, and personal achievement - everything else is just shades of grey. Sometimes we will publish things just to make you angry, and as always, we reserve the right to make frequent spelling mistakes, shoddy editorial decisions, and tasteless references.
The enumerator came by tonight! This is incredibly exciting; there I was, entering my second hour in front of my computer, when my doorbell rang. Wondering whether to stop working, I finally made my way to the door… and there was the enumerator! Like the eight year old in line to see Santa at the mall, I broke into a huge grin and happily gave the pertinent information.
To me, voting is exciting because it’s an opportunity to participate in our democratic process. Yawn, right? Wrong. Read more »
Saskatchewan is projecting a $1.3 billion drop in potash revenues this fiscal year but still hopes to post an overall budget surplus.To deal with the shortfall the government says it will take a $185 million dividend from the Crown Investments Corporation and delay funding the Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon and some schools.
Then there’s unexpectedly higher revenue of $668 million from oil, taxes and federal transfers, which covers half the potash revenue shortfall. Gantefoer will make up the rest through accounting measures like taking a $185 million dividend from the Crown corporations and by deferring $132 million in capital projects still in the planning stages. That doesn’t mean the Saskatoon Children’s Hospital has been cancelled, as some critics suggest; the money will be there once construction begins.
This is a brief and very interesting interview with K’Naan, a hip-hop protest artist from Somalia now based in Canada. His music speaks to the struggle people face living in his home country, and the government and warlords that prevent peace and prosperity. In this interview he talks about the origins of Somalian pirates from an angle that no other media source has addressed… watch on.
So here’s the question: does social media influence political policy? Over the last few years, the rise of social media as a medium in which to interact with people locally and around the world has created a dramatically different landscape for those hoping to be elected as well as for those in power. Social media exemplified by Twitter, Facebook, and a whole host of blogs, has produced an entire generation of people that can not only get their viewpoints out to the public vis a vie the internet, but also be contacted by politicians in a new way.
For instance, let’s say that you’re sitting at your computer when you hear a knock at your door. You get up, open the door and see a politician running in a local election. Now let’s say you’re sitting at your computer and you see that the same politician is following your twitter account, or has added you as a friend on Facebook; or maybe they made a comment on your blog. To which are you more receptive? Read more »
Messages like this are source material in the history of one of the most important fights of my generation. They also speak to the power of social media. The western world would not know that Amir Javadifar died in prison if not for social media. And then there is the organizational power of the social sphere. Read more »
There’s something that has caught my attention from the very start of the Regina Streets Magazine, and it continues to peak my interest since the start of this website. That is, we get just as many comments and compliments from the “right” of the political spectrum as we do from the “left”.
I think that partisanship is both detrimental and ridiculous, in politics and in life. Take this magazine. Do I have to be on the left to talk about the causes and effects of poverty? Do I have to be on the right to have a strong corporate business model and believe in microdevelopment? Absolutely not. Read more »
As per http://www.regina.ca/Page91.aspx, Regina’s next municipal election will be held on October 28, 2009. This is when we get to pick our Mayor, City Councillors and Public/Catholic School Board Trustees. And, it is also the best opportunity that ReginaansRegina-ites Regina Residents get to engage in bonafide, open dialogue about the future of our city. This is an incredible opportunity and I feel privileged to live under a political system that gives its citizens the right to freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.
Now, to those of you new to Regina, our municipal elections are traditionally very entertaining. Our politicians have a unique, very-Prairie, style of mudslinging and politicking. And, never forget that some thoughts and beliefs trigger particularly odd forms of expression. This election promises to be especially interesting since this will be the first municipal election in Regina since the phrase ’social media’ became part of mainstream vernacular. Read more »