The record, 13 juillet 2004, mardi 13 juillet 2004

THE RECORD W( The voice of the Eastern Townships since 1897 The Mondial des Cultures is underway.See Page 3 70 CENTS PM#0040007682 Tuesday, July 13, 2004 WWW.SHERBROOKERECORD.COM Virtual reality hitting the U of S campus By Carly Grossman Sherbrooke The world of virtual reality is no longer just the stuff of sci-fi thrillers.This fall, the University of Sherbrooke will be offering a new degree program that will touch on this techno fantasy world — among other things.François Deschênes, a professor in the department of mathematics and information, has conceptualized a program in Imaging Science and Digital Media (ISDM), and it’s the first of its kind in Canada.Students will be able to take a variety of multimedia courses that can be used in everything from video games to medical imaging.“It’s unique to Canada, there’s no other program like it,” explained Deschênes, from his cramped office at the University.“In Quebec we have cinema production, video and electronic arts and in Sherbrooke, we have the expertise, so it’s an ideal place to teach it.” See Reality, Page 5 By Rita Legault Waterville While strawberry farms in the prairies near Montreal were partly damaged by late frosts that wiped out part of the crops, farmers here in the Townships are enjoying their best season in years.Here strawberry plants are heavy with plump and luscious berries, just awaiting pickers.“We did have some damage, but not as much as the flatlands near Montreal,” said Strawberry farmer Richard Wera, who operates a U-Pick farm just outside Lennoxville.And while the season began late in the rest of the province, the berry season began early in the Townships and has been going strong since.Wera said he is having a much better than anticipated season.The frost, and the negative publicity it generated, has caused producers from the nearby Montérégie to suffer.Consumers heard about the frost, and there are fewer berries in the fruit and vegetable markets and grocery stores in Montreal, so they haven’t bothered to come and pick.Now the berries are ripe and may rot in the fields.But there are no strawberries rotting in Wera’s Waterville fields.“We weren’t hurt by that,” Wera said, adding that he does his advertising in the Townships where repeat customers show up early every summer to pick their berries for jams, preserves, sundaes and the ever-popular strawberry shortcake.Wera said his farm was even favored by the shortage of berries in grocery stores early in the season.“They were not in the stores so people tended to go and pick their own.” Wera said that a couple of times, he has been forced to close his fields for a day to allow the berries to ripen.Wera said there are more pickers and a smaller yield forcing berry growers in the area to close their fields to let the strawberries ripen, something that has not happened frequently in the last years of plenty.And with fewer berries there is much less spoiling and people pick more carefully.“When there is a heavy crop, there are a lot more berries left over,” he said.Wera said that because of the light rains and frequent sunny days, the berry has a good quality.“This year they are very sweet,” he said.The prices are good too.Despite a shortage of berries elsewhere, U-pick RITA LEGAULT According to farmer Richard Wera, the berry season began early in the Townships and has been going strong since.farmers are charging $2.25 a kilo (about $1 a pound).That’s up 10 cents since last year when they were $2.15 a kilo.See Berries, Page 3 Spared from frost, Townships has berry good season Townships Stage at The Piggery (North Hatley; Qc) the Noël Coward musical comedy revue! devised by Roderick Cook July 15 - August 1 This week: Thurs-Sat 8 pm / Sun 4 pm on, Gow/mm Tel: (819) 565-4957 or 1 -866-565-4957 / vvuvv.townshipsstage.com page 2 Tuesday,'Jùir'f2;'-£ft()4' .¦¦THE—.RECORD Animated condoms carry anti-AIDS message By Michael Smith Bangkok Three animated condoms named Stretch, Shaft and Dick are putting a light-hearted spin on the battle against AIDS.“They’re non-threatening,” says Ottawa filmmaker Firdaus Kharas, and that’s why they are able to get across a message about preventing infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.“Obviously, they don’t look much like condoms — they have arms and faces and they talk,” Kharas says.But more importantly, they take an often-taboo topic out of the closet and make it both funny and easy to understand.So far, the so-called Three Amigos have taken South Africa by storm; the South African Broadcasting Corporation is now running the 60-sec-ond adventures of Stretch, Shaft and Dick up to 20 times a day.In a country where frank discussion of sex is rare, there has been only one complaint: “An American Baptist wrote to say that abstinence was the best way to go.” “I wrote back and told him that not getting in a car was probably the best way to avoid dying in a crash,” Kharas says.“But if you’re going to drive, you put on your seat belt.” South Africa is one of the countries hardest hit by the worldwide epidemic of HIV and AIDS — the United Nations estimates that one in five people is infected.“It’s heart-wrenching,” says Kharas.That’s why — when he was approached by a writer at a South African trade show — he leapt at the chance to produce the Three Amigos series of public service announcements (PSAs).Now, Kharas is here at the 15th International AIDS Conference to try to expand their reach to the rest of the world.His goal — if he can find enough support — is to have Stretch, Shaft and Dick seen in 100 countries, heard in more than 40 languages, and reaching one billion people.So far, the Three Amigos is both a highly successful multinational collaboration, with a heavy Canadian flavour, and a shoestring venture that’s being run pretty much from Kharas’s Ottawa home.If someone wants information or copies of the spots, he says, “my wife and I fill in the envelopes in our basement and send them out." Except for two small grants, Kharas says, financing for the entire project has come out of his own pocket; he estimates he’s spent about $100,000 so far.And much of the work on the project has been volunteered: “I cajole people,” he says.Ontario’s Omni TV has helped with money to translate the Three Amigos spots into 40 languages, Kharas says, and when that work is complete, there will be more than 900 individual spots, ranging from 15 seconds for the European market to a full minute for South Africa.“It will be the largest PSA behaviour modification program in the world,” he says.“We’ll be able to reach 80 per cent of the world’s people in their own language.” Already in South Africa, the Three Amigos speak English (in both Canadian and South African accents), Afficaans, Zulu and Sotho.This meeting, held every two years, is often dominated by heated discussion of how to get anti-HIV drugs to the estimated 38 million people around the world infected by the virus.While vitally important, Kharas says that discussion often misses the point.“This is a preventable disease,” he says.While the World Health Organization is trying to get anti-HIV drugs to three million people by the end of 2005 — the so-called 3X5 initiative — more than 10 million people are expected to be infected in the same time.Kharas sees work like his as “a huge opportunity” to make inroads in the epidemic, “not just doing documentaries and influencing politicians, but actually affecting the course of the issue.What we need is mass education.” At the same time, the other main approach to preventing infection — a vaccine against HIV — is as far away as ever, researchers said.“The world is inching toward a vaccine,” said Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, “when we should be making strides.” Berkley released a somber report, saying that global efforts toward a vaccine remain inadequate, even though 14,000 people a day are being infected by the virus.The report called for a doubling of the $650 million US a year spent on vaccine research.—For CanWest News Service Everybody Loves Bunnies IX.x X CLAUDIA VILLEMAIRE/CORRESPONDENT Russel Frost’s petting farm was a hit at Richmond en Fête last weekend.Stores opened their doors and people dodged rain showers as local merchants did their best to get into a party mood.Mother Nature didn’t co-operate very well, resulting in smaller crowds and a rather subdued party atmosphere.However, showers and thunder storms didn’t deter the folk ¦from coming back time and again to cuddle baby bunnies, touch the curly fleece on Frost's pet sheep and sometimes, try to butt heads with the miniature goat family.Nearby, a tent sheltered a few courageous merchants and artists along with quite a number of townsfolk out for specially priced hot dogs and local music.A clown was on hand Saturday along with a face-painting artist in spite of showers and rumbles of impending downpours.Richmond town counsellor Natalie Lussier said with a shrug, “Oh well, next year will be better.You can't control the weather.Next week will probably be beautiful, just wait and see.” Main Street was well prepared for the event.Plenty offlowers on lamposts, wind sox and decorations had all been added to a rejuvenated Main Street where many merchants are in the final stages of store-front renovations.Weather Today: Cloudy with sunny periods.60 per cent chance of showers in the morning.30 per cent chance of showers in the evening.High 26.Wednesday: Cloudy.Low 14.High 25.Thursday: Cloudy.70 per cent chance of showers.Low 13.High 23.Friday: Showers.Low 15.High 21.Normals for the period.Low 11.High 25.Ben by Daniel Shelton SHHH.' NICHOLAS, PONT WAKE UP your mm! LET HIM FINISH T, HIS NAP.^ .otherwise HE CAN3BA PEAl MONSTER/ Gum'.VM — THE .i ¦ ¦ i .RECORD Tuesday, July 13, 2004 page 3 Mondial des Cultures On Until July 18 Nn| PERRY BEATON/SPF.C1AL The 23rd Mondial des Cultures takes place in Drummondville until July 18.It welcomes people from around the world to share their dance, music and culture.Seventeen dance troupes from 16 countries gather to perform, entertain and teach everyone who attends their unique culture.Musical fireworks, games for children, delicious food and international artisans all accompany the festival.For more information, visit www.mondialdescultures.com.Berries: Cont’d from Page 1 Unlike the stores, where prices fluctuate based on availability and demand, the prices at fields remain the same throughout the season, Wera said.Wera’s father started the U-Pick business in the late sixties.At the time, his motivation was not the lack of farm labour, which was still pretty plentiful.“At that time the problem was marketing,” he said, adding that his father felt buyers were taking advantage of farmers who had to bring their berries to Montreal and were not always offered a fair price for their produce and labours.That’s when he decided to sell directly from the farm.“One year there were not many berries in the store and so many people showed up at the farm, they couldn’t keep up.That is when people offered to help pick their own and a business was born.After that, in the seventies, there were traffic jams of people on weekends showing up to pick their own berries.The Wera’s then perfected their system of parking next to the fields and drive-through scales stations where pickers pay for their produce as they leave.On Monday morning, consumers were driving in and back out again because the fields were closed in the morning to allow the berries to ripen.Right now, the fields are pretty dry and Wera is hoping meteorologists have predicted correctly and that some rain will come this week.A few days of rain will mean good picking next weekend, he forecasted.Wera said the weekends tend to bring parents with children.“In the week its the serious pickers — the lady of the house comes to pick without the children.That means fewer people and more picking.” Wera has 30 acres of strawberries for picking and another 30 that will be ready next year when the current field is plowed under and planted with something different as Wera rotates his crops.Wera said the berries in his fields are not sprayed with any pesticides or fertilizers during the fruit season.They are only treated during the flowering, which makes the fruit free of dangerous pesticides.That’s good news for pickers doing quality control in the fields as they sample part of their crop.Wera has planted two varieties including an early berry and a later variety.That means the season will likely last till July 20 or 25.The Wera farm also has a crop of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, onion and leeks and even Chinese “daikon” radishes that will be ready for early August.After the Record’s interview with Wera, our reporter got work picking a basket of berries to share with her colleagues.She has two pieces of advice: Avoid picking berries at high noon on a hot, sunny day: and, don’t wear your brand new pair of khakis to go berry picking.For more information (in French only) about berries, advice on buying and picking, recipes, as well as a list of U-Pick farms in the Townships, visit the Quebec berry producers website at: www.frais-esetframboisesduquebec.com Most charges against Pelletier don’t stick Staff Behind bars for the last 17 months and acquitted of most of the charges against him, Roland Pelletier will learn his sentence for assaulting his ex-girlfriend and breaking into her home later this week.Last Friday Quebec Court judge Raymond Beauchemin found Pelletier, 31, not guilty of 18 of 23 charges against him.While sexual assault and sequestration charges were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the judge did find him guilty of assault, armed assault, breaking and entering and mischief for damaging a police car.In January, 2003 a 38-year-old woman went to police alleging Pelletier, who has a violent criminal past, had repeatedly raped and assaulted her for nearly two years after their relationship soured.A warrant was issued for the arrest, and he was caught a couple of weeks later as he fled from her apartment.Since then Pelletier has been held in custody.Under court rules the time served before a verdict counts for double, or the equivalent of 34 months.That raises the possibility Pelletier could be released soon after receiving his sentence.In his decision judge Beauchemin cited a number of contradictions which he said raised doubts about Pelletier’s real actions.He noted that the woman often went back to Pelletier after the alleged acts, and was slow to press charges.He did however note that many of the defence arguments were not credible.Sentencing arguments will be heard at the Granby courthouse on Wednesday.2:59 AM You’re still unconscious.Medic Alert SPEAKS FDR YOU 1-SDO-668-15D7 www.medicalert.ca NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Summer Schedule: June 21st to August 20th If you plan to make changes to your subscription (i.e.start, stop, address change), please be advised we need one (1) week notice (prior to date of change).Thank you (8i9) 569-9528 record ràgê ‘.4 'fv‘e s DÂr,*]ù'rir‘;Hv2DB'4' MAKE THE choice fl Convert to the most convenient payment option for your RECORD subscription: Only $11.00/month Have your subscription payments automatically debited from your bank account.It’s easy! 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