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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Iwi leaders say "mine"

This is ugly.
Elite Maori leadership side with Key and Brownlee and offer iwi land up to the extractive miners.
Mark Solomon says, 'So long as it's sustainable".
Is he mad?
Flaxroot Maori - NOW is the time!

9 comments:

Shunda barunda said...

If I was Maori I'd be fashioning a nice Ake ake Taiaha about now!

robertguyton said...

Fashion one anyway Shunda.
This issue is cross-cultural.

Shunda barunda said...

Ok I will, it happens that I removed a perfect Ake ake branch the other day.
And it is as hard as old nails!!

Anonymous said...

I really wonder what people mean by the word 'sustainable' now. How can a mine ever be sustainable?

robertguyton said...

Wildcrafty - a 'sustainable mine' is a non sequitur. Extracting a finite resource is necessarily a ..finite pursuit!
Perhaps Mr Solomon and Mr Brownlee know of the whereabouts of a motherload of Inexhaustium. That might be regarded as 'sustainable'.
Or perhaps they mean 'sustainable ..for a while'.
I regard the fishing industries the same way. And conventional farming. Extractive.

robertguyton said...

Shunda - you'll need a bunch of weka feathers as well.

Southernright said...

I wonder what your computer, cell phone and petrol in your cars are made from, thin air?????
I'm Maori, and I think its great!
The meaning of 'sustainable' will always be different to different people - all I can say is that I gre up on the West Coast in an area that was hand mined, then Chinese mined, then worked over with machinery, and now it is quite nice forest, native of course.
Our house was built on a saw mill site that was clear felled and when I was there, 20 years ago had a huge native forest around it.
Sustainable ah, hhmmnnn

robertguyton said...

Chances are Southernright,that the mining will be coal (most of it is).
'Sustainable' is the wrong word to use here - I think you mean 'repairable' and wonder if you are too forgiving. Mining is famous for releasing toxic materials into the surrounding environment and these days we count greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide as well. Coal mining, whether they 'make a lovely lake' afterwards will contribute hugely to NZ's emissions, the costs we have to pay (that's you and I, taxpayers)and the unforseen-by-many cost of climate disruption.

Shunda barunda said...

Sothernright, which part of the West Coast?
For every bit you say "grew back" I will show you a bit that has never recovered.
Modern mining is a long way from pick and shovel.