On February 15, 2006 the Provincial Ministry of Energy held a meeting in St. Catharines, for the purpose of gathering public feedback to the provincial power stategy, "Our Energy, Our Future". This was the presentaton from Bernie Slepkov, the Founder of Sustainable Niagara, made to Donna Cansfield, the Ontario Energy Minister, and her moderators.

I am speaking to [the] issue [of Ontario's Power Strategy] as the Founder of Sustainable Niagara., an organization whose main intent is to inspire and participate in developing regional social and economic sustainability.

Most of the articles listed at this directory were written for http://www.Seen.com. Prior to 9/11 Seen.com was a growing 'online magazine for New Ventures, New Visions and the New Economy'. Many of my articles, focusing on societal change, were an experiment in online community building.

Are our communities fragmented and in need of healing? It depends on which fence I happen to be sitting and in which direction I look.

Sustainability is a delicate set of complex equations that must carefully factor in the dynamic intricacies between environment, community, commerce and individuals. Equations of the most recent past are failing the test of time, taking their toll on global communities. Every facet of our lives seems stressfully out of joint with little to no relief in sight. Traditional core values have been challenged, trampled and spat on. Financially and emotionally bankrupt - or near bankrupt - we are complacent, apathetic, repressed, hurt, disillusioned, resentful, mistrusting, bitter, angry and scared.

Excerpts from the movie 'Mr. Holland's Opus' reminds us of the true purpose of teaching and being taught any subject or curriculum. "Playing music is supposed to be fun. It's about heart. It's about feelings and moving people and something beautiful, and being alive, and it's not about notes on a page. I can teach you notes on a page. I can't teach you that other stuff. Do me a favour. Pickup your clarinet and play with me. And this time no music 'cause you already know it. It's already in your head and your fingers and your heart. You just don't trust yourself." When his superiors challenged his teaching methods, Mr. Holland justifies them stating with confidence... "Mrs. Jacobs. Tell them (the school board) that I am teaching music, that I will use anything from Beethoven to Billy Holiday if I think that it will help me to teach a student to love music". The very essence of my message is that Mr. Holland not be the exception but the rule! That music not be the exception - to the curriculum- but the rule! That the odd student not be the exception but the rule!

There have been few times in history when one could say that "the future is already here." At the beginning of the 21st Century, I am talking about a new cultural scenario, made possible by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Since the early '80s, Western societies are the protagonists of an extraordinary process of technological change, that is leaving its mark on practically every aspect of our private and public lives. Generically known as the Internet, an expanding system of computer-mediated networks is allowing people to discover and invent new ways to share relevant information, to create new knowledge, and to build new kinds of communities, virtual communities, whereas the frontiers between "the artificial" and "the natural" are being rapidly eroded. These are communities not of common location, but of common interests, webs of human relationships linked in cyberspace (Holtzman 25).