"A Clydevale dairy farmer and his company were each fined $16,750 plus costs, in the Environment Court in Dunedin yesterday, for discharging dairy effluent to land.Shameful 'Barry Stuart Cowley and Cowley Ltd' didn't care about the water or the rivers, they have no interest in the future for their children or our children.
"The Waitaki Resource Exchange is intended to divert industrial by-products, surplus materials and waste away from the district's landfills, which are forced to swallow ever more material.
The programme, to be launched on February 9, is aimed at encouraging Waitaki district businesses, not-for-profit organisations, schools and other groups to look at their waste as a resource that others may be able to use rather than as something to dump.
Resource exchange co-ordinator Maxine Woodhouse said the exchange was like a free "match-making service" that would list resources available for use.
"We want to create lasting networks between those with excess resources and those seeking them, extending the life of usable materials and keeping them out of the landfill," Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust manager Marion Shore said.'Lasting networks'... 'waste as a resource'... 'extending the life of usable materials'... these objectives are becoming more and more important as depletion of our worlds resources continues. WE need to change our habits and our mentality and really reduce the amount we throw away - what is left from xmas for instance? - and reuse more. Reusing also helps create communities because of the interaction between people.
"Returning for it's third year, Luminate is a place to re-energise on the dancefloor, participate in workshops, be inspired about living sustainably, receive a massage, join in drumming around the fire, relax with a warm chai, watch an enlightening movie, be in harmony with nature, and celebrate a sense of conscious community. 28th January - 2nd February 2010."Canaan Downs at the top of Pikikirunga (Takaka Hill) is a magical area with lots of native trees and plenty of room. It is going to be FUN.
"Green Party MP Jeanette Fitzsimons confirmed today she had resigned from Parliament.
Ms Fitzsimons, the former co-leader, said it was time for a change of pace after a 13 year parliamentary career.At age 65 she wants to spend more time with her grandchildren - fair enough Jeanette - I give the highest praise to you for the work you have done to save the planet and this country. Thank you.
"I have called in these discharge consents as they are nationally significant due to their scale, the fragile and iconic nature of the Mackenzie Basin environment, the importance of freshwater quality to the Government and the high level of public interest," Dr Smith said.
"The effluent from these intensive farms is equivalent to a city of 250,000 people and raises quite legitimate questions over the long-term impacts on the water quality in the Mackenzie Basin."
Environment Canterbury has received more than 4000 submissions against the proposals, while both the parliamentary commissioner for the environment and the Green Party have urged the Government to "call in" the proposal as a project of national significance.
Calling in the application means it by-passes local authorities and the normal Environment Court process and instead goes to a special board of inquiry, set up by the Environment Minister, and chaired by an Environment Court judge.
The board will comprise Environment Court Judge Jane Borthwick, water engineer Michael Bowden, scientist Dr Jim Cooke, Ngai Tahu representative Edward Ellison, and Waikato University lake ecologist Professor David Hamilton.
"I have deliberately chosen board members with first-class expertise on water quality issues and three who are also serving as commissioners on related water take consents to ensure appropriate continuity of the decision making process," Smith said.
This is almost a dead duck, but the pressure must be kept on and we need to keep our eyes open to their other plans. They will be equally witless.
"Discovery Heritage Group has been banned from Port of Tauranga land after rival companies complained it hired foreign workers to wear traditional Maori dress.
Company director Terina Puriri said she employed a range of nationalities, including French and Israelis, because local Maori were not willing to promote their heritage.
"Some of our Maori are too slack to promote themselves. Some of our Maori are too lazy to get out of bed to do that.
"They don't turn up and it's a known thing for Tauranga Maori to do that."Bullshit - disrespecting tangata whenua is shocking - what possible motive could their be - other than drawing attention away from the shameful company.
"Local kaumatua Iria Whiu, from Ngati Ranginui and Ngai te Rangi, was outraged, saying Puriri's comments were "highly insulting".
Using non-Maori posing as Maori was an insult to Maori nationwide, he said.Exactly. This company should be investigated and protests should be launched. This type of exploitation is the very worse kind. Using non-maori to pretend to be maori is far too far IMO.
"Some U.S. military veterans are finding work helping sort through a massive government archaeological collection that has been neglected for decades.
Prehistoric and historic pottery, stone tools, arrowheads, Indian beads, necklaces, earrings and ear spools, and ceremonial artifacts, even human remains, were collected. The items then sat in boxes and paper bags in university museums as well as private basements, garages and tool sheds.
The collection dates to the 1930s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building dozens of locks, dams and reservoirs, and the ground beneath them was excavated for archaeological treasures.
In recent weeks, U.S. veterans — many disabled — have begun processing, cataloguing, digitizing and archiving the collection as part of a one-year $3.5 million project, funded with federal stimulus money.
It's part of the corps' effort to find American Indian cultural items and return them to tribes or their descendants — something all federal agencies must do under a 1990 law."This is good work.
"Facebook sites inciting anti-Indian sentiment continue to flourish despite protests from Indians in Australia.
Groups such as I think Indian People Should Wear Deodorant, Stop Whinging Indians, and Australia: Indians, You Have a Right to Leave, have not been removed."Freedom of speech so get over it? or the birthplace of hate and abuse?
"More than half a dozen Australian groups that are specifically anti-Indian are still active on Facebook. On top of that, there are many broadly racist groups, including F--- Off – We're Full and Speak English or Piss Off!!!, which has 54,000 members and is growing at a rate of about 2000 people a week.
"I don't think it's just a Facebook problem – it's a social problem, a problem in the society," Gautam Gupta, secretary of the Federation of Indian Students said.
This month anti-racism groups and school principals condemned students from elite Melbourne private schools who joined the group Mate, Speak English, You're in Australia Now.
Students from Sydney private schools Monte Sant' Angelo, Trinity Grammar and MLC are members of Speak English or Piss Off.
Facebook declined to comment on the sites.I don't think i'll search for anti maori or anti-people of colour immigration in NZ because I am sure the results will agitate me.
"Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) is selling 29 "designer dairy farms" it has built on former forestry land around Tokoroa.
They range in size from 218 to 726ha and in price from $5.1 million to $10.4 million.
The company hoped their sale will bring $224.5 million.
Mike Fraser-Jones, senior agent for realtor Bayleys, said the CHH had begun selling off land in the area during the late 1990s but retained 30,000ha for development.
"The farms represent the end process of converting forested land back into a productive state," he said.That's right - if it isn't a farm - it is not productive and is a waste of space and time.
"Each farm comes with a new dairy shed configured for farm size and a mixture of herringbone and rotary systems. The farms are based on an assumption of three cows per hectare, have deep water bores and pressure water systems, and new residences.
"Each of the farms has been designed for optimum efficiency, with approximately 1,500 metres being the longest walking distance for the cows, centrally located, top-of-the-line dairy sheds and three architect-design homes located for both convenience and views," Bayleys says.
The farms were converted with substantial investment in modern machinery, roading and residences ahead of Kyoto Protocol rules that came into force in 2008 requiring that cleared plantation forests be replanted rather than converted to another use.
All farms are being sharemilked at present and are supporting 20,000 cows. None have a farming record longer than 18 months and the most recent began operations in June last year. It appears likely that the properties will also be marketed internationally, once a domestic marketing campaign has been undertaken, thereby satisfying Overseas Investment Commission rules.Hmmm this does appear to be a way to get a wider range of people on the land but which people?
"Indigenous Australian leaders have expressed outrage at an "Aboriginal dance" routine by Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
The Russian world champions perform in dark-skin bodysuits adorned with leaves and white body paint markings.
Indigenous leader Bev Manton has decried the "ripping off" of Aboriginal culture as offensive and disrespectful.
"From an Aboriginal perspective, this performance is offensive," Mrs Manton writes in an editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Our dance, our ceremony, our image - and, importantly, how they are depicted - are sacred to Aboriginal Australians."
Mrs Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, has urged the three-time Russian national champions to rethink their routine before the Olympics in Vancouver.
"Interest must be expressed in a way that is respectful. The ripping off of our art and songs is not, and nor is this depiction of my culture," she wrote.Respect - it is not that hard - first you need to think of indigenous people as actual people.
"Arowhenua's community is celebrating Te Reo Maori with a week of workshops which have attracted people from all over the country.
More than 100 learners and speakers of Maori language have converged on the marae to upskill and put Te Reo into practice with others.
The community is hosting the second annual Kura Reo Kai Tahu (language school of Ngai Tahu) – a project facilitated by Ngai Tahu in an effort to bring generations of the tribe together to speak their dialect in an immersion environment.
Te Runanga O Ngai Tahu representative Charisma Rangipunga said the event was part of the tribe's language revitalisation strategy.
"We invite members of the tribe to come together to practise, upskill and learn new language skills. We endeavour to get to all our marae."
Two pools of people were taking part, with kaumatua taking the lead role.
"All students meet with elders in the morning for an open forum session.
"It is part of them passing on collective memories of their elders," Ms Rangipunga said.
Afternoon classes were dedicated to teaching Ngai Tahu proverbs, archival material, transcripts, dialect and composition lessons, she said.
One of the key components was being able to learn traditional language and to apply it in ways it could be used on the marae.
A team of 50 parents and 30 children had come together with the support of the Arowhenua community, she said.
"Their heritage, their traditions and their ancestors are something they can be proud of."
Arowhenua marae manager Mandy Home said the week had been very busy for the marae. Challenges had included catering for 100 people.
"This week is very important for our people.
"It's a resurgence of the language but it's also about teaching the children the language and taking ownership of their Ngai Tahutanga.
Whanau had given up their free time to uphold the Mana and Aroha of Te Runaka O Arowhenua, she said.
"Finally, Haere tonu Huirapa."Saving our language = saving our people.
"As the unprecedented humanitarian relief effort in Haiti struggles through logistical chaos, triaging shipments of food, medicine, and personnel, making sure help is distributed efficiently, one entity seems to consistently dominate the hierarchy of needs: the Military.
... Sky News, under the headline “Clashes over aid rise,” describes outbreaks of violence as “Hundreds of scavengers swarmed over damaged stores around the capital, seizing goods and fighting among themselves.” But a few paragraphs into the piece, we get this quote from top military commander Ken Keen: "The level of violence we see now is below pre-earthquake levels."
At a press conference on Monday, Keen admitted that there was no massive threat of violence. In fact, military officers' fears may have been informed by alarming press accounts—demonstrating the media's influence on not only public perceptions but policy calculations as well." ...Fantastic article that really made me think.
"Ngai Tahu says the science in support of widescale irrigation proposals in the Upper Waitaki is "patchy".
Hearings considering more than 126 consent applications to take water in the Mackenzie Basin and Upper Waitaki, covering more than 27,000 hectares of land, will resume in Christchurch from January 25 until March 9.
Legal adviser Paul Horgan's submission documents released yesterday said Ngai Tahu was "alarmed" by the scale and intensity of the Southdown Holdings, Five Rivers, Killermont Stations, Simons Hill, Simons Pass and the two Rosehip applications.
"Ngai Tahu considers that the science presented in support of the proposals is patchy and that there is a raft of uncertainties surrounding the actual and potential effects, especially those upon cultural values," he said.
"Unfortunately, we are led to the view that what the applicants are seeking is that a suck-it-and-see approach be adopted.
"For Ngai Tahu, its enduring relationship with the Upper Waitaki is too sacred for such a cavalier approach to be justified."
Ngai Tahu will speak at the hearings on January 25, but it is understood that the submission will provide the bulk of its evidence.
Mr Horgan's submission said although many of the smaller consents would not pose significant environmental or cultural risk to the area, it felt many of the larger applicants had failed to properly assess the science.
He claimed that the applicants have only measured water quality in the two arms of Lake Benmore, once in January 2008 and again in April 2008. He was also concerned about the accuracy of the sampling.
Ngai Tahu cultural adviser Mandy Waaka-Home's submission said she was not convinced the larger consent holders would be able to operate in a "benign manner".
"We do not believe we should have to suffer the indignity of gathering and eating food from an environment that is knowingly polluted. There is no dignity in that.""Remember this is what they want to do
"Three companies: Five Rivers Ltd, Southdown Holdings Ltd and Williamson Holdings Ltd have lodged consents applications with Environment Canterbury to allow 17,850 dairy cows to be housed in large sheds around the clock from March to October and for 12 hours a day for the rest of the year.
Waitaki District Council gave the proposals land use consent without public notification, but ECan has received more than 4000 submissions against them."We will stop this development, and then we will stop the next one and the one after that too. They don't stack up or make sense - they are mono-cultural exercises in greed.
