In today's (July 19 2012) Dominion Post, farming editor Jon Morgan, who is always worth reading, quotes BEEF+LAMB Chairman Mike Petersen as saying
_"New Zealand is on the cusp of an incredible opportunity . For the next forty years the world is going to have to produce the same amount of food as it did in the last 250 years. ......New Zealand is in the box seat."
On the same page one learns that we're already on the job.
Maori Farming Model
A University of Otago researcher has been granted $600,000 over two years to create a low input farming model combining Maori knowledge and science. Dr Marion Johnson's project, Indigenous Agroecology, will draw upon maturanga, the Maori knowledge system, to create a farming model which she says value diversity, aligns it with science, and preserves traditional knowledge.
Methinks the box seat could be the one in that little shed at the bottom of the garden.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Repeal the Marine & Coastal Area (Takatai Moana) Act 2011
I posted this today on the CREW.ORG.NZ forum http://crew.org.nz/forum/index.php
Some of you may not be aware that a petition is being put together by the Coastal Coalition
http://www.nzcpr.com/CoastalCoalition.htm to demand a referendum on the issue. I think that, so blatent and cynical was this National Government power play, there is a good chance of initiating a repeal process.
I know that there will be varying views on the subject but, if you feel (as I do) that shoving the bill through the Parliament in the face of a clearly opposed majority was a heinous disregard of democratic process, then NOW is the time to act.
You can download a petition form here:
http://www.nzcpr.com/CoastalCoalitionCIR.pdf
There is an explanatory letter here.
http://www.nzcpr.com/LetterCIR.pdf
Disclosure: The writer is NOT a member of any political party, dislikes a majority of politicians ( but wont reveal those he likes because they don't need encouragement) and always votes for the party which will provide the strongest parliamentary opposition.
I know that there will be varying views on the subject but, if you feel (as I do) that shoving the bill through the Parliament in the face of a clearly opposed majority was a heinous disregard of democratic process, then NOW is the time to act.
You can download a petition form here:
http://www.nzcpr.com/CoastalCoalitionCIR.pdf
There is an explanatory letter here.
http://www.nzcpr.com/LetterCIR.pdf
Disclosure: The writer is NOT a member of any political party, dislikes a majority of politicians ( but wont reveal those he likes because they don't need encouragement) and always votes for the party which will provide the strongest parliamentary opposition.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
I've got an idea - why not a bullet behind the ear?
If the St John Ambulance sponsor-advertising-removal-caper had your personal Rugby World Cup/disgust meter showing hot, then here's an outrage to send it to Red Alert.
Palmerston North Council's plan to remove beggars from their streets during the RWC is yet another measure straight out of the arsenal of the Vancouver Winter Games. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5363553/Homeless-sweep-up-planned-before-cup
Winter-time in North America sees a migration of homeless people from frozen mid-western, central, and eastern cities to milder Pacific seaboard cities such as Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, and Santa Monica.
The Vancouver plan was to bus the city's thousands of homeless to specially constructed shelters (that is, warehouses) beyond city limits. Great was the public outcry at this callous strategem and, indeed, it was quickly judged to be a violation of human rights. A compromise was reached whereby Police were to pick up the vagrants and escort them to inspect the new premises, to taste the healthy food, and sample the warm lodgings provided. But if their customers so chose, they were to be allowed back into the city where, as even Blind Freddie could see, the poor buggers would incur a great deal of constabulary harassment.
I never learned how successful this not-quite-final solution turned out to be.
What is clear is that the likes of the IOC, FIFA, and RWC committees will have been encouraged to continue to keep up such draconian pressure on host-city officials. Yes, some token shopkeepers have been persuaded to `front` the demands for beggars removal, but the underlying pressure comes from the gestapo.
How will London handle these issues? Perfidious and class ridden they may be, but the Brits have a tradition of even-handedness when it comes to the rights and happiness of their less privileged citizens. - we'll see.
Palmerston North Council's plan to remove beggars from their streets during the RWC is yet another measure straight out of the arsenal of the Vancouver Winter Games. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5363553/Homeless-sweep-up-planned-before-cup
Winter-time in North America sees a migration of homeless people from frozen mid-western, central, and eastern cities to milder Pacific seaboard cities such as Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, and Santa Monica.
The Vancouver plan was to bus the city's thousands of homeless to specially constructed shelters (that is, warehouses) beyond city limits. Great was the public outcry at this callous strategem and, indeed, it was quickly judged to be a violation of human rights. A compromise was reached whereby Police were to pick up the vagrants and escort them to inspect the new premises, to taste the healthy food, and sample the warm lodgings provided. But if their customers so chose, they were to be allowed back into the city where, as even Blind Freddie could see, the poor buggers would incur a great deal of constabulary harassment.
I never learned how successful this not-quite-final solution turned out to be.
What is clear is that the likes of the IOC, FIFA, and RWC committees will have been encouraged to continue to keep up such draconian pressure on host-city officials. Yes, some token shopkeepers have been persuaded to `front` the demands for beggars removal, but the underlying pressure comes from the gestapo.
How will London handle these issues? Perfidious and class ridden they may be, but the Brits have a tradition of even-handedness when it comes to the rights and happiness of their less privileged citizens. - we'll see.
Never, for one moment....
....did I imagine, when I wrote of the bull shit showered upon Vancouverites prior and during the last Winter Games, that the same sort of wickedness would be dealt to Aucklanders by the Rugby World Cup Gestapo and SS Grupenfuhrer Murray McCully.
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Item - Stopwork for contractors.
Construction work will halt for two months in main areas of Auckland as the city welcomes visitors to the Rugby World Cup and tries to keep traffic flowing.
Contractors say the move is driving them into the ground, and a workers' union says it is a poor way to keep up appearances - akin to removing the homeless from city streets "for a stupid game of rugby". http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10741790
Item - Nicking a school carpark for the exclusive use of RWC sponsors - Emirates Airlines
The proposal has been expanded before the special authority to allow car parking on Kowhai Intermediate School's grounds even on non-match days.
The school will be paid for the arrangement, and will close during the opening match day on September 9. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10740616
As a pre-election political stunt I do not know what is the more nauseating. Inviting oneself to parley with an American President, wrapping oneself in the national flag, or high-jacking the national sport.
The French had 350,000 visitors to their Rugby World Cup and just managed to break even. We must provide similar sports facilities and infrastructure on a budget limited by a quarter of that number.
This is a recipe for financial disaster, exacerbated by such idiocy as closing down construction work. Doubtless, however, the figures will be fiddled and fudged and its true enormity concealed until well beyond the election.
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