Trotter on Parker, Marryatt and other Authoritarians

Chris Trotter nails the problems with the Christchurch City Council to the wall so we can all have a gander and it ain't pretty.

"Neither Mayor Bob Parker nor council chief executive Tony Marryatt appear to have grasped the urgency of transforming the council into the principal advocate of - and for - Christchurch's battered citizens.
On the contrary, both men seem to have scant regard for the three principles indispensable to the construction of unity: transparency; consultation; and accountability.
Local democracy is not about gathering together a bare majority of compliant cronies whose sole contribution to local government is to rubber-stamp the joint recommendations of the mayor and his chief executive.
And it is certainly not about the mayor's cronies, puffed-up with pride at their insider status, heaping scorn upon those councillors denied admission to the magic circle of power.
Indeed, nothing is more calculated to breed disunity, disaffection and defensiveness: the very feelings that cause politicians to resort to that time- honoured response to secrecy and exclusion - the leak."

Trotter's vision is clear here, and the problems he describes, not confined to just the CCC.

"Two manifestations of administrative authoritarianism deserve special attention. The so-far- unsuccessful attempts by local government officials to impose legal restraints on the degree to which elected representatives can participate in contentious debates.
And, the Local Government Commission's ongoing campaign to reduce the number of elected representatives on city councils and with them the ratio of councillors to citizens."

Read the full article here.

Gardening with a wild heart

" A wildflower field was an unplowed, unmowed, unfertilized, untilled, unpesticided, unwatered, always returning grain field."

While writing my NZGardener column this morning, discussing the value of sowing suburban front lawns in cereals festooned with wildflowers, but needing to know the types of wildflowers that would do best among rye, I stumbled upon this page from a blog by a woman who loves wildflowers.
You might enjoy it. The video of wildflowers blowing in the wind might be something to watch. I've not had the time yet to do so.
I stole the image from her site.

Coal camp - Mataura

We made apricot jam

Grow oranges in Southland!

(Hat-tip Antje)


"WASHINGTON -- Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation's 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones."

Southland's frost records show the same trend - far fewer frosts now than in the past and trending toward none at all. Good for growing oranges perhaps, but welcomed also by every sap-sucking bug in creation.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/26/2000017/usdas-new-planting-zones-reflect.html?story_link=email_msg#storylink=cpy

Maori Party outraged

"The Maori Party have today slammed the approval of sale of Crafar Farms, with co-Leader Dr. Pita Sharples saying “our land should stay in our hands.”
“We are totally outraged that the Overseas Investment Office would approve the sale of this massive land holding to foreign investors,” said Dr. Sharples."

Take it to your pal, John Key, Mr Sharples.

Maori Party see the tohu on the wall

"The Maori Party has described Government plans to remove Treaty protections from the sale of four SOEs as ‘selling Treaty rights to the highest bidder’."

It's become very hot in the Government kitchen just lately.

“The whole Treaty settlement process, and all the progress made over the past 25 years, has largely been driven by the Treaty clauses in the SOE Act, and we must not allow the government to dump those protections in order to get a better price for the power companies,” said Co-leader Dr Pita Sharples"

Tautoko, Pita!

China could have sued

"If the New Zealand government had declined the Shanghai Pengxin purchase of the Crafar farm it could have faced an international law suit for breaching its free trade agreement with China, says University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey.
‘When China’s politicians warned New Zealand politicians last year that the agreement was a two way street it is clear they were referring to their rights as foreign investors under the so-called “trade” treaty.’"

Jane Kelsey makes it clear that there are serious problems with the Chinese purchase of New Zealand farmland, and with the manner in which Key is playing with our sovereignty.

"‘The government would have pulled out all the stops to avoid a Chinese investor supported by the Chinese State taking it to international arbitration for breaching the FTA, even if it felt it was on strong legal ground.’
‘Such a dispute would have huge ramifications for New Zealand’s diplomatic and economic relationship with China.’
‘It would also cast a spotlight on the even greater risks of the more extensive foreign investor rights proposed for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a debate that the government is desperate to avoid.’
According to Professor Kelsey ‘the US is demanding much stronger protections for its would-be investors in the TPPA than China secured and the Key government has apparently rolled over and agreed to them, unlike Australia’.
‘The popular angst being channelled towards the Chinese needs to become a more principled opposition to deals that sign the sovereignty of our resources over to foreign corporations and who can sue the government in offshore courts if they don’t get their way.’"

The plot thickens...

(hat-tip Kylie)

Questions are being asked as to the legality and appropriateness of Nick Smith's appointment of a Crown Observer to keep a (Big) brotherly eye in the Christchurch City Council. Here, Council Watch does their job - the've watched and now they're asking questions. Good stuff.


Ombudsmen And Crown Law Asked To Investigate Minister’s Decision WELLINGTON, 30 January 2012 Council Watch has formally requested the investigation of Local Government Minister Nick Smith’s appointment of a Crown Observer to Christchurch City Council. The Minister’s office had arranged for Sir Kerry Marshall MBE to take up an observation role in the weeks leading up to a meeting with the Chief Executive and councillors of Christchurch City Council. Council Watch Local Government Engagement Advisor, Jim Candiliotis, has formally asked the Office of the Ombudsmen to investigate the advice provided to the Minister. He says Council Watch has also requested the Solicitor General to review the appointment. “Local government is constituted separate from central government under an Act of Parliament for a reason,” says Mr Candiliotis, “When the Local Government Act was drafted our lawmakers saw fit to give the Minister four options if intervention was necessary in local government affairs. These powers are outlined in the Local Government Act and are accompanied by clear requirements to follow if used. “The appointment of a ‘Crown Observer’ is not derived from the Act and we believe it is unconstitutional, unlawful or at the very least a blatant interference in the governance of a city. “To date the Minister’s office has not provided a satisfactory explanation for taking such a course of action.” The Minister has borrowed from a little-known provision in the Education Act 1989. Under S.195C of that Act the Minister of Education may appoint a Crown Observer to the council of a Tertiary Institution. It does not provide for such an appointment to a local body, nor does it allow any other for any other Minister to appoint a Crown Observer. Mr Candiliotis says the move begs the question why the Minister is involving himself in the Council in the first place. “Anyone who works with Councils understands there are tensions at the Councillor level – that is the nature of democracy. When it comes to misbehaviour, arguments and public spats the people we elect to Parliament provide a much greater spectacle than those we elect to councils. So why has the Minister gone to all this trouble? “How would the taxpayers of New Zealand feel if Barack Obama appointed the American Ambassador to sit in on Cabinet meetings at the Beehive? “The ratepayers of Christchurch no doubt are feeling a bit like that now. Mr Candiliotis does not know when he’ll be getting a ruling from either the Ombudsmen or the Solicitor General, but he says the issue is too important to allow it to rest. “There has been a lot of interference by central government in local authorities in the past three years,” he says, “And the subversion of democracy is a slippery slope. Our hope is the Minister takes a step back and allows the Council to sort its own problems out, or else uses the provisions allowed him under the Act. “Just because you are elected to Parliament, it does not give you the right to bend the law.” ENDS

Christchurch City Council and ES - sisters?

(Hat-tip Jan)

OPINION: Nick Smith has missed an opportunity to redeem himself for the hatchet job he did on the Environment Canterbury (ECan) council two years ago. Local Government Min-ister Smith swept into town on Friday at the "invitation" of Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker to meet with elected members of the dysfunctional city council. It probably brought back memories for Smith of the day when he, as Environment Minister, and his gone but not forgotten local government minister predecessor Rodney Hide dropped into the city to unveil the commissioners they had chosen to replace the ECan councillors. This time though Smith was accompanied by Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee at the meeting which Parker originally said he had hoped to "invite" the minister to. You have to wonder how much of an "invitation" it really was. Smith had an announcement all ready explaining his introduction of a Crown observer, and also had somehow managed to secure the services of former Nelson mayor and – quite appropriately for the squabbling council – marriage guidance counsellor Kerry Marshall just a couple of days after his "invitation" from Parker. With all due respect to Marshall, a lot more fun could have been had if Smith had eaten some humble pie for the ECan council massacre and instead appointed another Kerry – former ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke. Burke was always a hotshot on council procedure, standing orders and the "right way" for councillors to behave at meetings. As an observer of both councils, and despite what politicians find convenient to say publicly, I have to say the ECan council was nowhere near as dysfunctional as the current city council. In fact, unlike what Smith and Hide kept repeating in the hope it might actually become the case, the cobbled-together report into ECan by former National deputy prime minister Wyatt Creech never harped on about the council being dysfunctional. There are parallels here in that Smith and Parker have grabbed on to and keep repeating another convenient supposition that the city council is in its current plight because of constant leaking. Sorry guys, you're wrong there too, no matter how many times you say it. There haven't been many leaks at all, less than a handful. The council is in trouble because not all councillors are treated equally. Appointing Burke as the Crown observer would have been hugely ironic, given Parker was the driving force behind the Canterbury mayors banding together to complain about ECan to the Government. Along with the background unitary authority agenda, the water issue and how it dovetails with the economy were irresistible temptations to those in Government wanting to take greater control. The ECan council was the stumbling block. Just think, Burke overseeing Parker and his councillors! One can only imagine how Parker would have felt in that situation, the wheel having turned full circle.

Heard of section 9?

Tumeke! has the goods on the possible stumbling block to Key's asset sale plans.

The mermaid's gone

And in her place, the freshness of a newly decorated bedroom. The matai floors have been sanded and oiled, the ceiling painted 'alabaster white' and the walls papered with a green damask.
Curtains are next, then it'll be habitable.
Feeling a little proud.
(So as not to feel too alienated from our past, I kept a fragment of the mermaid's tail :-)

Tenants in our own land

"John Hartevelt says that John Key has brought the controversy on himself with his ‘tenants in own land’ rhetoric, and now fails to be able to explain why his effective support for the sale to Pengxin is not hypocritical – see: Sun always shines in the land of Key. This is particularly ironic as taxpayers (in the form of Landcorp) will indeed be the tenants, and the new owners are backed by cheap credit from the Chinese Government, who appear to have no qualms about actively supporting acquisition of assets."

Bryce Edwards points interested New Zealanders in the right direction over the Pengxin sale.

Read, and weep.

 Pablo at Kiwipolitico tears the Authoritarians a new one, and discusses 'our culture of impunity':

"...With that in mind I ask readers if such a culture of impunity exists in NZ. I ask because it strikes me that although diluted and less repressive in genesis, there appears to be an attitude of impunity in the political and economic elite. They can buy silence and name suppression when they misbehave; with a wink and a nod they accommodate employment for their friends and provide sinecures for each other (think of various Boards); they consider themselves better informed, in the know, more worldly and therefore unaccountable to the popular masses when it comes to making policy (think of the use of parliamentary urgency to ram through contentious legislation and the NZDF command lies about what the SAS is actually doing in Afghanistan); they award themselves extraordinary powers in some  times of crisis (Christchurch) while absolving themselves of  responsibility in others (Rena). They use the Police for their own purposes (Teapot Tapes and Occupy evictions, the latter happening not because of public consensus but done by summary executive fiat). More generally, think of the lack of transparency in how government decisions are made and the duplicity of elite statements about economic issues (say, the price of wage goods) and political matters (e.g., recent internal security legislation). Coupled with equally opaque decision-making in NZ’s largest publicly-traded firms, or the cozy overlap between sectors of the judiciary and other elites, the list of traded favors and protections is long."

Read the full article here:

Sold! To China.

You know what I mean.

Straterra myths and legends

I followed Dave Kennedy's link to the Straterra 'Climate Change' page on their website. I was taken-aback!
Here, I've pasted their material and added a comment or two (in red) where I felt there was some flim-flam going on (if it was ink, I'd have used gallons).

Climate change

Myth: Coal, oil & gas development in NZ will affect the climate.
(Stop right there, Mr Straterra! There is no question what so ever that the development of coal, gas and oil in New Zealand has already, and will if it continues, affect the climate. The only question can be 'by how much'? Your, 'myth' tag here is utter nonsense. Consider this - if you believed it was a myth, would you be talking gas capture and sequestration at all? Your first 'play' on this page is an epic fail.)

Reality: Fossil fuels do lead to greenhouse gas emissions, however, this statement needs to be measured in the context of New Zealand’s climate change response. That is that we must do our fair share - and we are. For example, New Zealand has 70% renewable electricity generation, a world leading figure. While close to half our emissions come from agriculture, this industry helps feed the world and is less emissions intensive than it is in many other countries. 
(This 'rationalization' is complete bollocks! You do lead, however, with a true statement; "Reality: Fossil fuels do lead to greenhouse gas emissions..." which kind of makes your lead statement at the top of the page look foolish, doesn't it. You seem to be saying here, that because elsewhere in the world, others are creating greenhouse gases at a greater rate, we are okay adding our smaller amounts. The mind boggles at your logic and apparent ability to deny the obvious. New Zealand's climate change response, as championed here by you, is widely recognised as a very, very soft one. For you to willfully add to the output of greenhouse gases that we are already failing to account for, is not admirable, Mr Straterra.)



Myth: NZ should ban coal mining and oil & gas development, to reduce emissions.
(This is a myth? It doesn't even have the form of a myth, Mr Straterra. If it said, "Banning coal mining and oil & gas development in New Zealand would reduce emissions, it would of course be true, no myth at all. However, you seem to be implying that there is a claim 'out there' for the banning of coal mining and oil and gas development. You have, I guess, made that up. The most credible calls I hear from those agencies who regard extractive activities such as you describe as as a threat to the climate aren't calling for a ban on existing coal mining, especially those that are mining high grade coals, they are calling, not for a ban, but a moratorium, on lignite extraction where new mines are proposed and they are calling for a similar moratorium on off shore drilling for oil, not a ban on those already in operation. Your 'myth' is one you have, I suggest, dreamed up to suit your purpose. It's not one that is circulating in the real world.) 

Reality: Yes, but climate change demands a global response. That will include carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) to address the fact the world will continue to burn fossil fuels for many years yet. According to the International Energy Agency, 47% of new electricity generation in the last decade is based on coal. Unilateral action would only harm NZ – e.g. closure of dairy and wood processors, steel mill, methanol plant, cement plants - while not benefiting the climate, unless the world acts in concert. It is not, at present. 
(Reality: Yes! Goodness, your myth, by your own reckoning, is a reality? You might need to adjust your spin on this Mr Straterra, it's a little revealing!
Climate change demands a global response you say? So you've accepted that it's not just a myth, I take it.
'Global response' must be a conglomeration of local responses, naturally, and you have the chance to be some of those local responses (or are you hoping that 'overseas' will fix the climate change you describe?).
Unilateral action is the great 'stick of fear' producers of green house gases like to wave, but of course it's nonsense. Other countries/companies/communities are taking action. Our own is dragging the chain and the mining industry is one of the worst offenders here - and that's you, Mr Straterra! Claiming that we can act til the world acts, benefits those who also claim the same thing in order to carry on business as usual, ignoring the fact that their activities are causing a worsrning of the climate and a direct threat to every human on the planet. "But they're doing it" sounds like a school yard wheedle and doesn't impress when it comes from a seemingly sophisticated corporation.


Myth: CCS doesn’t work and is corporate spin.
(Had you been at the public meeting at Mataura where the Lincoln University specialist in CCS spoke, you'd take down this claim, Mr Straterra. He fisked your argument so thoroughly that you'd have slunk from the room.
"in operation, not in operation, or in the planning around the globe" - weasel words, those. The one thaat I've seen a report on that is collecting some of its CO2 is pumping it through a 300km pipeline and pushing it into a partly-empty oil well in order to force the oil up and into the pockets of the investors - not possible here in Southland, Mr Straterra, we've no half-empty oil wells here, none that are empty and waiting to be filled with Co2 and Taranaki's a very, very long pipeline away. CCS is a hugely underwhelming solution to what will be an unavoidable problem for your industry.

Reality: The IEA reports more than 70 large-scale CCS R&D projects in operation, not in operation, or in the planning around the globe. Many billions of dollars are being spent on this - a serious investment aimed at dealing with global reality, i.e. 1 trillion tonnes of coal is due to be burned in coming decades. That said, CCS is yet to be implemented at scale. For that, significant investment and de-risking, e.g. via improved regulatory environments, will be needed.
("That said, CCS is yet to be implemented at scale." - I commend you for your forthrightness and honesty, Mr Straterra. It's not, as you say, a reality yet, so I guess that makes CCS more myth than anything else!)


Myth: Lignite is particularly bad for the climate because the level of GHG emissions is high.

Reality: This depends on the use of the lignite, and whether CCS is deployed.
(Hard to know whether to bother with this last lame claim, Mr Straterra. Your argument is wet-tissue weak and I'm feeling kindly, after finding a grain of truth in your page (see above).
I think I'll leave it for another day. Thanks for your time.)

Asset sales

Let's see.. each and every New Zealander owns these assets and shares the returns from them but soon we won't because they are to be sold to people wealthy enough to buy the shares.
Someone is being screwed here.
There will be a guarantee from the Government that those shares that are for sale won't just be sold on to overseas to buyers offering far more money than the shares originally cost, won't there?
I mean, the Crafar farms example shows who wins when Chinese investors, flush with cash, bid against we poorer New Zealanders. We don't want our energy companies driven by parties from overseas, do we?
That'd be plain stupid.
That could mean that Solid Energy's direction could be called from the other side of the world. How would people from Mataura feel about that? If locals found that the mining was intolerable for some reason, they'd want to be able to influence the company to keep themselves; their families, health and physical environment safe, wouldn't they? They'd feel very anxious if the decision makers were all sitting in the northern hemisphere, growing rich from the mining and resisting any calls to slow down or stop.
Have people thought this through?

Bon voyage

The tide's going out on our mermaid.
She's been casting her protective gaze over my children for all the years since she was painted on the sloping ceiling of their bedroom by the Irish girl who stayed with us for a week or two as part of her world travels, but now it's time for our maid of the sea to leave us. My daughter is no longer of an age where a mural like this resonates, and so today it's sandpaper and dust masks, as I scrub off the siren and paint her out in favour of a plain ceiling.
The night sky, with it's Milky way and swirling nebula that I painted many years ago, when my eldest son was 7, still covers the ceiling in the other upstairs bedroom, is staying, though he's moved out and has a ceiling of his own. He's kept his interest in astronomy though, so the effort that went into painting a ceiling (have you ever tried it? I'm talking a high ceiling, of the sort found in colonial homes) is still realising value.

Pre-sand

Post

Worst blog nomination!

Exciting!
My blog has been nominated for the 'Worst Blog 2012' on the Right-wing blog 'Gotcha' that's bodged together by the tempestuous WhaleOil/Slater.

My nominee?
Inventory2 from Keeping Stock.

Righteous!

Bernie Napp - funny fellow

Ya gotta laff!

Straterra's response to the weekends anti-lignite mining festival, through senior policy analyst Bernie Napp's letter to the Southland times, was a seemingly maladroit attempt to counter some of the issues raised at the public meeting at the Mataura Community Centre. Dave Kennedy has countered several of the silly claims made by the Straterra man,  but I found Napp's generic 'without mining we are doomed, dooooomed!' caterwaul the funniest.
Bernie says,
"Indeed, if there were no energy and minerals, whether imported into or produced in New Zealand, there would be no hospitals, no transport, no schools, no electricity, no food, no clothing, no phones." and
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
In fact he didn't say the latter, but had it echoing around inside his head, I'm sure.

The large and well-informed party of opponents to Solid Energy's plans to open-cut mine lignite at Mataura are not saying, as Chicken Little Bernie Napp says, no mining at all, they are calling for a halt to the plans for new lignite mining in Southland. Bernie's efforts which appear so clumsy, are no doubt designed to confuse that message.

"No clothing!!!"

Lordy!

Cob oven dissolution

We've returned our cob oven to the soil. The beauty of an oven made from clay, sand and straw is that when it need to be replaced, it can go straight back into the ground. Our oven was wearing out (should've covered it from the start - clay does not repel Southland rain for long) and we've decided to make a new one, so the old had to go. Josh did the work and Peter will manage the reconstruction of the new model. I'll get the 'hood', made from craddy sticks and cabbage tree thatch, over it the moment it's finished. The materials from the original cob oven will have dissolved into the soil by then, leaving no trace. Perfect!

Corn up-date

I'm keeping the nitrogen to it and it's growing apace.

Perhaps the world's gruntiest...

...strainer post. The photo doesn't show just how massive this post is. If ordinary strainers were seals, this is a sea elephant. I shot it on my way home from Mataura, during one of my 'saddle-breaks'.

Mike Dunbar's on-farm cinema

(Reeks of lanolin)

Don't trust coal companies, Aussie farmer tells Southland

(CANA press release)

A coal company has all but destroyed the community of Acland, Queensland, where Australian seed and grain farmer Sid Plant lives, he told the community of Mataura, Southland, today at the “Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival” open day.

Around 300 people are attending today’s open day at the Mataura Community Centre. Locals have joined the 150 scientists, members of NGOs, MPs, farmers and concerned citizens from across New Zealand who have been camping since Friday, discussing Solid Energy’s plans to develop dirty lignite coal, which would increase our greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. They’re camping on the land of one farmer who refuses to sell to Solid Energy, Mike Dumbar.

Mr Plant’s 1200 ha farm in southern Queensland (near Toowoomba) borders the four million tonne New Hope coal mine that will later expand to ten million tonnes. He has watched as neighbour after neighbour has been bought up by New Hope.

“The mining companies all say ‘we will make it better than it was’ but they destroy the land – it can never be rehabilitated. I’ve witnessed the desecration of the best quality farmland where I live – just as Solid Energy is about to do in Southland. You can never get it back,” Mr Plant told the meeting.

Also speaking at the Open Day was orthopaedic surgeon Russell Tregonning, on behalf of Ora Taiao, a group of more than 140 senior doctors and other NZ health professionals gravely concerned about the impacts of climate change as a leading global health threat this century (according to the World Health Organisation).

“The threat from climate change supersedes the threat of cardiovascular disease, cancer, AIDS/HIV, the diabetes epidemic – all combined,” he told the meeting.
Dr Tregonning also outlined the threats to the local community from a range of pollutants that would be emitted from Solid Energy’s operations in Southland.

“Coal pollutants affect all major body organ systems and contribute to four of the five leading causes of mortality in the US: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases,” he warned.

Antarctic geologist Dr Peter Barratt outlined concerns about climate change.

“Changes to the climate have already begun. As an Antarctic scientist, it troubles me that the ice sheet has already begun to melt – when I traveled there 40 years ago that idea was inconceivable. If we keep on burning fossil fuels the way we are now, by the end of the century there will be as much CO2 in the atmosphere as 40-50 million years ago when average global temperatures were many degrees warmer than they are today.”

Dr Shannon Page, a lecturer at Lincoln University’s Environmental Management department, warned against assurances that the emissions from lignite can be taken care of by Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

“CCS is an experimental technology, but even in the best case, it could only reduce emissions from some of the process of coal use – not the extraction nor the end use of briquettes. It is highly unlikely that there would ever be somewhere to bury CO2 in Southland,” he said.

Coal Action Network Aotearoa spokesperson Kristin Gillies was “delighted” with the turnout both at today’s meeting, and with the festival.

“The whole of New Zealand should be extremely worried about Solid Energy’s plans for lignite exploitation in Southland. As a result of this festival we now have a national campaign determined to oppose this company, every step of the way.”

ENDS

Garden

Finally, a chance to get information

(Letter to the editor, Southland Times, 24 January)

Solid Energy complains (January 22) that "green lobbyists" are doing their best to limit discussion on lignite mining.
  I went along to hear their case at the Mataura Community Centre on Sunday.
  By my memory, Solid Energy's current proposals for its use of Gore district lignite first appeared in public in 2006.
  Ever since, apart from a little commercial puffery, Solid Energy hasn't ever opened its proposals to public discussion.
  More remarkable perhaps has been the reaction of the Gore District Council - nothing.
  Not a word of information or explanation. Not a sign of public discussion.
  For this project of this size, is that good enough?
  Lignite underlies about 16,000 hectares of the Gore district, apart from some urban areas, all good farmland.
  Getting on for half of that is said to be already signed up by Solid Energy.
  What happens to the rest?
  I would listen to Solid Energy's case if they made one.
  I would participate in our council's discussion if they came out of their shell, but the only option I actually had to learn anything was at Sunday's meeting.
  I found the case convincing, and yes, you've guessed it, not a Gore district councillor in sight.

John Purey-Cust
Gore

Lignitemare

Mataura pre-mine

I made it back from the 'Keep the Coal in the Hole' summer festival, by sheer force of will! My bicycle and my muscles were willing, but the 90km ride was made more difficult than I'd hoped it would be, due to a combination of rain and wind but I did eventually pedal into Riverton, many hours after I left Mataura and the excitement of a weekend of listening to and talking with, experts on the subject of lignite mining. The caliber of the invited speaking guests was very high and their presentations powerful. I was asked to take Gerry Ford's place as MC for the public meeting in the town hall on Sunday and I enjoyed that very much. It was easy working with quality 'talent' and an intelligent crowd. The large, modern hall was full and the programme covered by both TVOne and 3, along with Radio New Zealand, Radio Southland, the Southland Times, ODT and several fine local newspapers. The message was clear - leave the lignite in the ground. That unequivocal stand was overlaid with the message that Solid Energy was not presenting its intentions and the situation in a realistic way, and that there is a need for the public to demand clarity from them. Plans were laid for such a revelation. I had a great deal of interest in the comments from one of the speakers whose field of expertise is carbon sequestration, who said, no, they can't do it. I was not surprised but appreciated hearing from someone who knows for sure.
As to the camp, it was fascinating. There were 4 MPs staying over the weekend, all Green, as well as Jeanette Fitzsimons and her husband, Harry. The remainder of the 'tent city' was made up of young, experienced campaigners from all over the country and a number of Southlanders who wanted to show, I suppose, that there is tangible support for the national movement here, on the ground, and at least to suffer some discomfort along with those from further north, who must have been doing it harder than we were. It was wet at times, and windy, but everyone was bright and positive. I learned a great deal from the camp and look forward to the next stage of the programme to stop the mining of lignite in Southland. The Solid Energy security people were there too, by the way, and the police, who swarmed on occasion, but had nothing real to do. There will have been a Solid Energy mole or two among the campers, I imagine, but as the camp and its activities were open and freely communicative, they needn't have been furtive. The 'no surprises, communicate intentions to all agencies' philosophy of the CANA organizing team is one I fully endorse. It seems an enlightened way to go about business.
Thanks, btw, to all involved and that certainly includes the cooks, working from their flapping tents - your work was superb and the food excellent.

Bio

Sam's mushroom

Babbling brook...

Or soaking lentils?

Tipping point

Opportunity, in the form of a freak gust of wind, presented Boxy with a dilemma - run free in the wide world, or stay put where it was safe.

High winds

It's howling here in the deep south!
I've just lost a young  sweet chestnut tree to the gale and it looks like it's just getting started (the gale that is - the trees been growing for three years. I'll go out and prune it back to its single remaining branch when the wind dies down. Our intrepid cycling Green MP won't be enjoying this at all! Nor will those setting up their tents at Mataura in readiness for the coal festival.)

Coal action t-shirts

White t-shirts will be available at the festival and they'll carry this image.
Any thoughts?

The smell of burning wings

"When the journalist and photographer from the regional newspaper come out to the green and pleasant Southland farm to give us the vital coverage we need to promote our summer festival 'coal camp', let's get them to photograph us standing around one of the ramshackle toilets we are bodging together for the event. That'll create atmosphere and attract support from Southlanders reading the paper over their morning toast and coffee!"

Bristlecone moment

It's easy turning 54, when your family and friends treat you to a birthday picnic amongst the trees at an arboretum and cover the picnic rug with delicious treats to eat and drink and the weather pitches in as well with evening warmth and still air. There was even the opportunity to do a good deed by lending a helping hand to a motorist with a blown out tyre and a missing jack.
Walking off the mountains of food afterwards and exploring the dappled 'rooms' of the arboretum revealed the presence of a bristlecone pine tree!
How young that made me feel!

Lignite letter (to the editor)

Next weekend's 'lignite' festival at Mataura looks to be very interesting and good fun. People from all over the country have booked a tent site for the festival and there are speakers from outside of New Zealand as well as well-known Kiwis, coming to give their views on what impacts the mining of lignite would have Southland. I was so impressed to hear that young Green Party MP, Julie Anne Genter is cycling all the way from Christchurch to be at the festival, that I've vowed to get on my bike too, and ride home to Riverton afterwards. Both she and I have our fingers crossed for calm, sunny weather.

Robert Guyton

RIVERTON

Dirty mining business

"Apparently, the 78 mining companies using conservation land are together paying DOC less than a million dollars a year for the privilege."

Bryce Edwards at Liberation opens the debate on what the Government plans to do this year to achieve it's extractive plans and links to articles that explore the details of the dirty business that's already undermining the quality of our environment and democracy. 

Dave Kennedy at Local Bodies describes well the festival at Mataura and what's behind Solid Energy's behaviour there.

Shooting against the sky

Corn up-date

I drenched the soil around the corn-clump with liquid plant feed made from comfrey leaves (12 month old brew).
The leaves are growing apace in the once-again-present sunshine and thank-goodness-you're-back warmth.

Two bees (or not ...)

This poor creature has only one wing and none of its body bristles. I wonder what happened! It seems completely miserable.
The second bumble bee, by contrast, is all a'buzz with passion for these lemon flowers, in fact, I'd say it was obsessed with them - despite my poking the lens in its face repeatedly, it continued to suck nectar relentlessly.

Cucumber flower

Ankor what?

My garage has become overwhelmed by a Manchurian gooseberry and a kiwifruit vine.
Ought I to be concerned?
There's fruit on the smooth-leaved actinidia for the first time, so I'm not going to prune it til that's ripe.

The Great Corn Cob Experiment (up-date)

I planted a whole corn cob, saved from last year's crop, in the soil to see what would happen.
A couple of weeks later, a clump of leaves has formed. I'm figuring that if I feed the clump well, with aged comfrey soup from the barrel behind the shed, the growth may continue. What the cluster will look like in a fortnight's time is anyone's guess, but I'll be there with my camera.
Some would say this is a pointless exercise.

3 French visitors

This trio of French women stayed with us last night and cooked a three-course meal in the French style, which we shared over a glass or two of wine.They cooked:
Soupe a' l'oignon
Gratin Dauphinois
Tarte fine aux pommes

And it was all delicious!

You are what you eat, eats.

This excellent article on nutrition should capture the interest of anyone who...eats.
It will in fact, interest very few but it's a brilliant (in my view) description of what we need to know in order to thrive into the future.
(Hat-tip darkhorse)

How to make sense of the Food Bill (Part One)

Ms Timms breaks ranks

Commenting in today's Southland Times on yesterday's confidential meeting of the 4 member CEO's Performance Review Committee, council chairman Ali Timms said 10 out of the 12 councillors attended and unanimously agreed to seek legal advice.
Confused?
Someone is.

Indistputable

After more than a day and a night of constant rainfall, Environment Southland CE Ciaran Keogh has made the difficult call and declared in today's rag, that 'Southland's soil moisture levels were rising'.
My vegetables can rest easy in their beds, celebrate even, knowing that they're now officially wet.

Good story - Fiordland Advocate (click for larger view)

Invertebrate

The plastic beads

They're missing the point. Those beads breakdown into tiny 'units' that are eaten by tiny sea organisms, which are in turn eaten by slightly larger, then larger still until fish of the sort we like to eat, meaning we humans end up with tiny plastic 'units' integrated into our bodies. The release of these plastic beads is, in my opinion, a serious issue.
There are other dangerous goods in the containers that were being transported on the Rena.
The efforts by the Rena salvors spokesperson to play down the threat on the radio today was not laughable, but rather sad.

Eco-terrorist caught

The intentional buggering-up the environment by this goose has resulted in a fine he'll have to pay, but the damage to the dairy industry's image is far greater. Hot on the heels of the revelation that Tasman dairy farmers were misrepresenting data around fencing off their waterways, this idiotic act by the Canterbury dairy farmer, which has resulted in sullying the 'flagship' efforts by the Government, Fonterra and Ngai Tahu, to repair the damage done to Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora, will further stain the copybook of the dairy industry which needs to convince the public that its activities are safe for the environment. This latest blot proves that it is not.

Quote of the day

“But communication is two-sided - vital and profound communication makes demands also on those who are to receive it... demands in the sense of concentration, of genuine effort to receive what is being communicated. ”

Roger Sessions

A fightin' Guyton

This morning's Southland Times carries the swashbuckling story of fightin' men from the south and our own Bioneer's one of them!

There's  movin' pictures too, here, on the Times' website.

The clash of swords and shields echo over Fernworth School on Thursday evenings.
Members of Medius Auvum Comitatus, the Invercargill medieval swordfighting club, go there to practise their skills.
It is a stunning sight, and an incongrous one in New Zealand two men clad head to toe in armour wielding massive swords, swinging at each other's heads and bodies.
The appropriately-named Zane Knight first got into swordfighting growing up in Whangarei.
''I'd always been into medieval history,'' he said.
''It's a part of my family heritage. There's a lot of Scottish and Danish there. I also grew up with stories of ancestral swords brought over from Denmark ... It's always been a passion.''
The original club still existed in Whangarei, he said, but he set one up in Invercargill when he moved South in 2007.
His comrade-in-arms Terry Guyton discovered the group when he stayed late at work – he is a teacher at Fernworth.
He concedes his skills do not match Mr Knight's.
''If Zane was fighting someone closer to his level there would not be so many strikes,'' he said.
Mr Knight made the swords the group uses himself, using a steel bar reduced and shaped by a sander. The process can take up to 60 hours.
The group have two-handed greatswords as well as single-handed swords, which Mr Knight prefers to use.
Armour is also time-consuming. At the time the group tends to portray, armour was transitioning from chain mail to plate.
Chain mail – links of metal formed into a shirt – is extremely hard to make, while plate metal is expensive.
Mr Knight's first chain mail shirt had 28,000 links, each of which had to be connected by hand.
''It's something to do when you're really bored,'' he said.
On their bodies, the group wear 1cm thick leather jackets called gamesons, with metal plates for the shoulders, upper arms and neck.
There are different types of helmets, all heavy. When struck by a sword blow, you hear ringing but feel little.
The skills being taught come directly out of original treatises written to instruct knights.
The same techniques would have been used on battlefields and in tournaments across Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries, during conflicts such as the Wars of the Roses in 15th century England.
The bucklers (small shields) used by the group would have been used only in tourneys – they were no use against an arrow or a crossbow bolt.
In battle, men would have used bigger shields, and, as technology developed, larger swords to penetrate advanced armour.
There is a thriving subculture of medievalists in New Zealand. Each year, there is a tourney in Taupo, featuring swordfighters and jousting, Mr Knight said.

Il pleure

These frogs are two from my collection.

Today, three French girls arrived on our doorstep and we are about to share a meal.
And it's raining.

Congratulations, Ray and Flora

It's the 55th Wedding Anniversary of Ray and Flora Kennedy, of Invercargill.
By extraordinary coincidence, it would also be the 55th Wedding anniversary of Lance and Patricia Guyton, if they still trod the planet.
Even more remarkable is the fact that today is the 28th Wedding Anniversary of Robert and Robyn Guyton, of Riverton!
Will wonders never cease!

Ray and Flora - the longer-lasters!

Paranormal's answer