You've got my vote, mate! This latest post from you on water and who's doing what with it, is gold. Look at this:
"Secondly, much can be done at the level of local government.
Local governments are responsible for implementing resource management laws and have powers (and the legal obligation) to set their own environmental targets. However there is no escaping the conflict between polluters and the public at the local level and if the overall message coming out of Parliament is soft on polluting, it can make it hard for local bodies to find the courage to set tough standards"
This is just what we are battling on our council and somehow, Mr Morgan has it sussed. Here's more:
"Eventually Parliament may reconnect with the public will on fresh water – and the 2014 election may be the catalyst for that – but in the meantime it is pretty clear that those who can make a difference should get on regardless. What is needed then is a joining of the dots across local government and community groups to make the efforts of both more effective. Community groups and local councils could collaborate on a much greater scale than they do at present both within each community and across communities. The onus for taking this step towards greater collaboration and connection sits with councils who have both the resources to engage with other councils and communities and a legislated responsibility to protect the environment."
This is excellent stuff from Gareth Morgan. I'm liking his style - not at all afraid to call it how it is.
Read his entire article here and think, if you are so inclined, about what he's proposing.
35 comments:
Love him or hate him the good thing about Gareth is he challenges people to think outside the accepted circle. Far to many people think we should all be the same, think the same and walk the same.
Yes he does. I suppose he's free of one of the big things that constrains people from expressing too-radical ideas, in that he doesn't have to watch how his words effect his employment opportunities. It's very surprising how powerful that factor is.
Usually Gareth is on the money and I can see why you favour him but after his out burst on North Korea I can see why he is just the man
"It was fantastic
The country is beautiful
The country is just fantastic, the farms are perfect. They have no pollution.
huge pride in their personal space
those they witnessed were not malnourished or lacking in necessities in clothing or shelter
poor, yes, but wonderfully engaged, well-dressed, fully employed and well informed
what North Korea has achieved economically despite its lack of access to international money has been magnificent."
I note he has now moved away from that rosy view
Elite politicians swanning around while they grind the peasants down, has to be a Green wet dream
I found Gareth's glorifying comments on North Korea puzzling also, Ray.
I haven't seen where he has 'moved away from that rosy view', but I'll accept your word for it.
I don't understand your final comment, nor your need to slag the Greens in your comment.
"wonderfully engaged, well-dressed, fully employed and well informed"
does seem like a pretty good thing though. I'd like to know if they were happy also. It sounds as though those gareth saw, were.
Having just returned from a visit to Poland and seeing first hand Auschwitz and hearing the story of the holocaust it become obvious that a lot of intelligent people failed to see what was going on. Nth Korea is treating a large part of its population badly, as are several other countries and Gareth is letting himself down with his comments. The simple test for Nth Korea would be to open its borders and allow the free flow of people backwards and forwards into the south. Will they do that? Never.
I would also wonder why it has anything to green politics. The politics of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer seems to fit more with the right. The USA is just finding that out. Happy to sacrifice young people in the name of freedom yet at home financial freedom for the average person has disappeared. Google every aid to George Bush and see how rich they have become on the backs of the soldiers facing death in the desert dust.
Philip - whilst in Poland, did you see anything of the gardens of ordinary Poles? I'm told that i many parts of Europe, villages, towns, hamlets etc are different from ours in that vegetable gardening is widespread and respected and occupies more space and shared space, where ours do not. I'm not sure if Poland is like this, but other countries nearby, are, so I'm told (we have people from all over the world come and stay with us here in Riverton, but so far, from the several hundred who have stayed and helped us in our forest-garden, none have been from Poland).
I think you need to understand that in Europe and the UK people live far differently than NZ.The quarter acre section we are so proud of is impossible for most of them as they live in houses or apartments with no section. However the great quarter acre dream has made us insular when perhaps more community type involvement could be healthier. Allotments are seen on the outskirts of most towns.I made a submission to the Donovan park Review last year that the allowed the development of allotments on an area off Bainfield Rd for several reasons. One was to drive the community feel. another so solo dads could take their children somewhere and engage in an interest that suited all ages and the other is so park staff could get to pass on their knowledge. Cost would be negligible apart from a deer fence and the council could control it setting out some guidelines. Each allotment be allowed to have a small shed. In the UK it is a way of life and they look amazing as the keeping up with the Jones kicks in. Competition is healthy and drives a good spirit of involvement. In Czech Republic the allotments were not as tidy but they had been flooded not long before we were there. Poland we only saw a small part of but it looked like a country on the up and up.
Opps I never meant to sound patronising. I meant we need to remember people live very differently in other parts of the world. Humans adapt to their circumstances very well. In NZ we are blessed with fresh air and wide open spaces which is great but sometimes means people get disconnected with society. In Europe the family groups you see seem to include several generations together. UK you dont see it. In NZ we all seem to think we are so busy yet never have time to stop and smell the roses. Or have quality family group time. Progress means families can move and rarely live in the same area. There are good and bad sides to that. We are still like sheep in that we enjoy congregating in the same part of the field and gain comfort from that
Your Donovon Park proposal has a lot of merit. Critics would argue that if there was the demand, a market would provide, however, I'm a believer in 'conscious communities' that decide things for themselves and shape their own destinies. We proposed a heritage orchard for the same park. It didn't fly, but instead we have a plethora of such orchards popping up in many Southland hamlets right now - Edendale being the latest to embrace the concept and give us space. Being blessed with space has caused we NZlanders to fail to appreciate what we had and what we could have, in my view. Overcrowding or a war could solve that complacency - maybe an ecological war would also serve as a wake-up.
We need community leadership. The reason for Donovan park is that the community van be involved as the owners of the land and can also set the standards. Market forces will never work because there is no commercial benefits. If they did do it people could come and people could go but the community will always own the land. If it didnt work you could pull up the fences and run a plough over the ground.
Agree totally that there is a growing awareness and that showed through in the last environmental awards. We entered and since then while not winning an award have made contacts that are happy to share their knowledge. Why because we all believe in the same things. Its not a commercial transaction, its a genuine desire to be part of something that gives value in an indirect way or lots of indirect ways.
Sorry if my last last comment offended you Robert
I was referring to the feeling some get that the "greens" would like to impose a life style on us while the elite lived the good life
Thinking of some MPs who live the good life, notch up air-points at our expense while urging us to ride bikes
I wasn't offended, Ray and I still don't buy your argument. I know all of the Green MPs and have met some of them on many occasions where they have been travelling in order to fulfill the roles I and others voted them on to do. The 'Grens can't use fossil fuels in their fight against off-shore drilling, is a nonsense for a whole lot of reasons, but the classic fault in the 'hypocrisy' argument for me, is that if it's valid, then surely it's also true to say that those who argue for fossil-fuel use are compromised, have a vested interest, are biased, because they benefit from its continued use. Therefore, no-one can argue the issue. That's what makes me laugh about your argument.
Philip - "We need community leadership". Yes, and we need to be the community leaders, having realised the need. Of course, if there's a crowd waiting to lead, I'm happy to assist.
Rebecca Amunsden's a great community leader.
Morgan's a preening crackpot who, because of the scattershot nature of his public musings, occasionally happens to get it right. From his pointlessly confrontational posturings on cat control he's demonstrated that he's more interested in talking down to people than he is in fostering co-operation. And he's no friend of the Greens.
Crack-pot's a great expression - I remember the day I realised it was literal - a cracked pot would make an 'un-true' sound when struck - doink doink or something like that. And 'preening' is a good'un too. At first I read 'preening cricket' which excited the writer/reader in me. Must be something Aesopish in there somewhere. No friend to the Greens, eh! I remember reading that outburst from Mr Gareth Morgan and thinking, 'that's revealing'.
Morgan bothers me because he's essentially anti-democratic. While he's happy to present himself as some kind of champion of the popular will, his track record shows him to be an authoritarian who's quick to resort to personal vendettas - e.g. his recent gloating over the retirement of the SPCA's Bob Kerridge.
Back in the late 90s there was a not-uncommon sentiment that the Warehouse guy could do a better job of running the country. Once Steven Tindall's star had tarnished it became the TradeMe guy. Now we have the TradeMe guy's dad playing to the Great Man view of how history should be shaped.
Happy Meal the penguin - which probably arrived on our shores as by-catch from a Southern Ocean fishing boat - would probably be alive today if Morgan hadn't sacrificed it to a pointless publicity stunt.
aaaah Joe you touch on a very important point about the 80's. Many of the shining stars crashed and burned and the odd one even become a guest of Her Majesty. In those days they were held up as the leaders of NZ. The other thing with Gareth was he did sit at the Round Table once and they wanted the wealth of NZ kept in that room. Anyone who wanted to share have to become subservient to the greater good. Right wing leopards don't change their spots but sadly the left wing ones, Douglas, Preeble, Shadbolt and many others often have. Greed is a powerful driver of human behaviour and has a lot to do with our ability to move forward. Unbridled greed is what stops us as a community or society moving forward.It will cost us 18 million dollars to feed every child in our schools over a year. The government said that could not be afforded yet a week later the CEO of Telecom left with a 12 Million handshake. That disconnect is holding NZ back as a society which is pretty sad when you think what a great place we live in.
Are there wealthy men in whom we can trust?
Morgan leaves me cold, Robert. I have no grounds to treat anything he says with more credibility than anyone else. Here's the basis.
He has a PhD. That always raises a question mark in my mind for any authority figure. Often education and intelligence are used or credited like they are interchangeable, when they are quote different things.
He was employed as an economist. That's almost always a bad thing.
His main claim to fame came from piggy backing on someone else's success.
On the question you posed in your last comment, no.
I appreciate your candid comments, AC, as always.
I've another question - are there men we can trust? (We'll get to the question of women later, perhaps).
yes there are men you can trust. Only problem is they are busy doing stuff instead of looking for publicity and the feel of importance that goes with it. The late Bill Richardson would be one. Man of huge knowledge and understanding of people. A real leader and hugely respected by all those who worked for him
Hmmmm...so, Philip, are all of our politicians - those who act important and like to be popular, not trustworthy, do you think? Does one state negate the other?
Yes.
Politician by fact of the environment they operate in cannot live by ideals alone. They have to make trade offs and deals to achieve things. Can they be honest? I think so but are they? I think many are not. An ex president of the Labour Party once told be that they are a group of power hungry persons that need to be well managed. That was back in Lange's day. later he was proved correct. If you are elected to parliament nowadays the first thing when you get to Wellington that happens if the parliamentary services people have a day with you explaining the perks of the office. One MP in the last 15 years refused to go through that but be no one would know his name. When you hear it you will get it.
That was as of about 6 years ago and may well have been others since but doubt it. And may have been longer than 15 years but not a lot
Who was it, I wonder?
Certainly not Bill.
I guess that if it was someone already rolling in money and instructed by those who installed him there that it would be great, politically and strategically to decline to be 'initiated', then I'd not be surprised.
Nandor apparently said he wasn't interested. And said he would serve so long and did just that. Never judge a book by its cover is the moral of that story.
Ah, Nandor! There's a good man for you.
I didn't know that about him.
Makes sense when you hear his name doesn't it. One for the honest politicians. Any others?
Yes. Nandor had similarly trustworthy peers in the party. You have doubts about Jeanette Fitzsimon's integrity? I don't.
At one time, Nandor and I had to run through a hail-storm in Invercargill. He was largely untroubled by the pelting, due to the dreads wound around his head, but my thin covering offered no such protection. We laughed like crazy.Not really on topic I know. You might be surprised to hear too, that I carried both Sue Bradford and Sue Kedgley across a room, AT THE SAME TIME! I was stronger then :-) What else...I drove Rod Donald to Gore and back and watched/learned how to approach people who weren't supporters, in the street and still get a good reception. He was talking rail and SBS. Rod used to spend a lot of time packing groceries in supermarkets to meet and talk with people. I thought that was a great idea.
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