and our children grow

On a personal level it has been an eventful start to 2012 and most of the events have been difficult. A lot has also been happening in the real world too - here are some of my thoughts...


I've talked about TAG Oil before on this blog and at that time I highlighted their enthusiasm for exploitation of the East Coast, which they recently described as "the Texas of the south", "literally leaking oil and gas". Only the people can stop these exploiters - the government wants them to drill, but they will be stopped. It doesn't matter how many paid trips TAG Oil organise for the locals they will never win. The battlelines on this one are clear and everyone will have to make a decision about where they actually stand - I have faith that they will stand with us in opposition to their plans.


The Archdruid has put a great post up that really made me think about privilege and it relates to the paragraph above too because the decisions we make today ripple into our future.

... To understand the consequences of that awkward fact, it’s important to get past the rhetoric of victimization that fills so much space in discussions of social hierarchy these days. Of course the people at or near the upper end of the pyramid get a much larger share of the proceeds of the system than anybody else, and those at or near the bottom get crumbs; that’s not in question. The point that needs making is that a great many people in between those two extremes also benefit handsomely from the system. When those people criticize the system, their criticisms by and large focus on the barriers that keep them from having as large a share as the rich—not the ones that keep them from having as small a share as the poor, or to phrase things a little differently, that keep their privileged share from being distributed more fairly across the population as a whole.

We are community but we are also individuals and that is where change occurs. Reduction is the consequence of Peak Oil but we must begin to prepare and get used to less. To reduce. And for those of us bought up in western societies that is a difficult point to accept. Yet as JMG says everywhere else people do live with less. Always thought provoking and inspiring is JMG for me. Another writer and person that I hold in high esteem is Matt McCarten and he is writing very well in the NZH

The winners in our society have most of us convinced that they are financially successful because they are academically brighter, make the most of education opportunities and have superior personal qualities. Losers, on the other hand, are the opposite; with the added problems of criminal behaviour, addictions and family conflict.

But a major academic study that has tracked more than 1300 individuals was released this week. Children born to rich parents have a better chance in life to be happier, healthier and wealthier then those kids from poor backgrounds.

The mythology surrounding the poor is designed to perpetuate poorness.We must stand up for equality each and every time and I am pleased that the Mana Party are focusing on the poor. I see a real alignment with tino rangatiratanga in that approach. And great to see Hone and the Mana Party come out in support of the workers involved in the port dispute. The Standard has lots of posts on the dispute and well worth a read for the facts.


A brilliant article called 'The Exclusive Economic Zone: for sale' by Claire Browning

It says that if what you find out there in the EEZ is worth enough, it’s all for sale. What the Bill does is state its price. It does not set in place any bottom line – any fence, if you like, against risk of environmental destruction.

It is the Schedule 4 policy leftovers warmed up, in a more remote place, where the government hopes we will neither notice nor care.

Our environment is in serious danger and the government has opened the gate for the predators. They respect nothing except profit and they will try to eat us. That is what they do - they eat and shit money. But we can stop them, people can stop them and we will! Part of the way we can do it is communication and consultation - spreading the word, talking about it. Community is the answer but as I've noted earlier we, as individuals, must decide where we stand, what we believe in and what we love. It is not our place to exploit and desecrate Papatūānuku, Mother Earth - it has never been our place, yet here we are, today. And our children grow.