Al Gore New Zealand Interview

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10410827>

listening to Carbon Based Lifeforms | Silent Running

Politicians Sweep Mid-Term Elections

Resounding Victories In All States, Counties, Cities, Towns
November 7, 2006 | Issue 42•45

WASHINGTON, DC—After months of aggressive campaigning and with nearly 99 percent of ballots counted, politicians were the big winners in Tuesday's midterm election, taking all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, retaining a majority with 100 out of 100 seats in the Senate, and pushing political candidates to victory in each of the 36 gubernatorial races up for grabs.


Prominent politicians from across the country celebrate the election results.

While analysts had been predicting a possible sweep for months, and early exit-poll numbers seemed favorable, politicians reportedly exceeded even their own expectations, gaining an impressive 100 percent of the overall national vote.

A wonderfully anarchist view courtesy of The Onion http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54918 (thanks David)


listening to same as below

Al Gore to visit NZ in November

I saw this - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/6/story.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10410061 - on the NZ Herald website this morning. (Well done to the Kiwi animators who were chosen to contribute to the film.)

Normally the visit of a US ex-politician would excite me about as much as a fly in my soup. But I might see if I can catch him. If you haven't seen Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" Documentary about global warming, I highly recommend it. It’s a wee bit US-American in places - 'cos that's the audience he has to reach - but in context, outstanding. Although I was a believer already, I've been converted to the gospel according to Al.

listening to REM | Losing My Religion

Syriana Movie

Oh yeah, I saw Syriana one night in Palmerston North. It was that or "The Hostel" but i decided not to see that on my own in case it really is as scary/yukky as it appears.

Anyway, Syriana was not that great, a bit disappointing. It had a lot of potential, but was basically just confusing. I reached the end going "I'm sure there was a profound point in there, but I lost it just trying to follow the different storylines." Something about big business and goverment and control of oil being bad.

I've started my writing on reducing plastic use. It will appear in this blog in the next few weeks probably. Send any interesting facts you come across on plastic, or plastic packaging to me.

San Francisco Anti-Consumerism Group 'Staggered by Response'

Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 February 2006

A small group of Bay Area residents who made an informal vow to not buy anything new in 2006 have found themselves in the middle of an international fury over consumerism, ecology and middle-class hypocrisy that has spread around the world in just days.

"It's been totally insane. We've had a lot of people say we're smug, self-congratulatory braggarts," John Perry, one of the founders of the original Compact group, said today. He has spent much of the week fielding calls from national TV and radio stations.

"And we've had other people say it gives them hope for the future. It has definitely touched a nerve," he said. "We've been staggered by the response."

The Compact, named after the Mayflower pilgrims' revolutionary credo, started at a dinner party two years ago as a way to fight what members consider a rampant consumer culture wreaking global ecological havoc.

After a few trial runs, about 50 extended friends decided to go an entire year without buying anything new besides food, health and safety items and underwear.

But the group's agenda has apparently struck a chord -- both positive and negative -- around the world.

Since their story was reported Monday in The Chronicle, they've been besieged with hundreds of e-mails and dozens of media calls.

More than 350 people have joined the Compact, and chapters are appearing in virtually every U.S. city as well as London, Sydney, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Toronto, Edmonton, New Zealand, Spain, Romania and other international locales.

New members, who sign up on the group's Yahoo Web site, include seniors on fixed incomes, farmers in Alabama and self-proclaimed shop-aholics who say they "have a problem and need help."

They've been joined by denizens of sparsely populated Pacific islands where recycling is a necessity rather than an option, high school students and one person in Kansas who said, "I though I was the only one. Now I've found my tribe."

"People seem intrigued, which is good," said Kate Boyd, a drama teacher at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco who's one of the original members. "It has been overwhelming. But if it's at least making people think, then it's worthwhile."

But, like all instant celebrities, the Compact has been subjected to ridicule and criticism as well. There's even an anti-Compact group that's sprung up on an Internet news and discussion site.

The original Compacters aren't sure what to make of the backlash. They were never out to convert anyone, start a political movement or inflict dogma on anyone else. The intention was to merely to "reduce the impact of consumer culture in our lives" in a lighthearted and social manner.

"I've also been attacked personally for being in marketing," said Perry, who works for a Silicon Valley high-tech company. "One person said that's like a pimp preaching abstinence. Then someone else said it was like a sinner seeking penitence -- who better?"

Another stream of criticism has focused on whether the Compact will ultimately hurt the economy. If everyone stopped shopping, the argument goes, wouldn't that kill a huge sector of the national economy?

No, the Compacters say, it wouldn't.

"Wal-Mart is doing a lot more to kill jobs in America than we are,"
Perry said.

Peter Sealey, adjunct marketing professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, pointed out that there will always be a need for stores that sell new things, because used things eventually wear out.

In other words, Pottery Barn is probably safe.

As then there's been the predictable flurry of mockery about the Compact being an "only in San Francisco" phenomenon.

"The Clear Channel AM radio station in L.A. treated it like this is a Bay Area thing through and through," Perry said. "I'm waiting to hear from Bill O'Reilly next."

Sarah Pelmas, a dean at University High School in San Francisco and one of the original Compacters, said she's amazed at the extreme responses the ompact has provoked.

"People seem very threatened by it," she said. "But people all over the world live this way all the time. It's not like it's some revolutionary, or even consistent, thing we're doing. But I have been furiously questioned by some people about it -- one person said, 'I bet you still buy gas.' "

That sort of response is exactly why the Compact is needed, Perry said.

"If it's national news when a small group of professionals decide not to buy anything new, and it bothers people so much, it really speaks to how deep we are into consumerism in this country," he said.

SOURCES:
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2383
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/16/MNG2KH9P4767.DTL

Syriana, Oil and Truth

I want to see the movie Syriana. I've just seen Jarhead tonight, which shows scenes of US soldiers wandering around in burning oilfields in the first Gulf war, reminding me a lot of a very slow arty film by some German guy (help me out here Duncan) about the capping of those wells. Jarhead also shows young US guys getting drunk, being jerks, and being shouted at by mentally disturbed "officers". JHead's an ok movie, I feel strangely ambivalent about it. Which i suppose is one of the themes of the movie; "War is dull, and I didn't get to kill anyone."

Anyway, here's a very interesting article from an (English speaking) Arab newspaper about Syriana. Wheels within wheels, the plot thickens...

I mentioned in an earlier blog somewhere that Paradise Now is an amazing must-see movie. All these movies are set in the Middle East, and some of them question the role of oil. And coincidentally I've been thinking a bit about how we use oil to make plastic, along with my growing concern about plastic pollution - our overuse of plastics. Oil will run out one day, perhaps in my lifetime. (I will leave aside the debate over exactly when. Most people think about cars, but i think the loss of plastic will be a greater difficulty given possible alternative fuels for vehicles. Expect me to rant more on this topic soon.



listening to Metamorphosis : Legacy of the Clenched Fist

Intentional Communities

Cos i live in a tiny intentional community (8 people spread over 4 houses) i found the following interesting

What's True About Intentional Communities:
Dispelling the Myths

Compiled by the Fellowship for Intentional Communities, October 1996

1. Myth: There are no intentional communities anymore; they died out in the `60s &`70s.

Fact: Not so. Many of those communities survived and thrived, and many new ones have formed since then. A significant new wave of interest in intentional communities has grown over the last several years.

We listed 540 intentional communities in North America in the 1995 edition of our Communities Directory--up from 300 in our 1990/91 edition. Several hundred more communities (who declined to be listed) are in our database. We estimate there are several thousand altogether.

2. Myth: Intentional communities are all alike.

Fact: There is enormous diversity among intentional communities. Most communities share land or housing, but more importantly, their members share a common vision and work actively to carry out their common purpose.

However, their purposes vary widely. For example, communities have been formed to share resources, to create great family neighborhoods, to live ecologically sustainable lifestyles, or to live with others who hold similar values. Some communities are wholly secular; others are committed to a common spiritual practice; many are spiritually eclectic. Some are focused on egalitarian values and voluntary simplicity, or mutual interpersonal growth work, or rural homesteading and self-reliance. Some communities provide services, for example helping war refugees, the urban homeless, or developmentally disabled children or adults. Some communities operate rural conference and retreat centers, health and healing centers, or sustainable-living education centers.

3. Myth: Intentional communities are "communes."

Fact: Many people use these terms interchangeably, however, it is probably more useful to use the term "commune" to describe a particular kind of intentional community whose members live "communally" in an economic sense--operating with a common treasury and sharing ownership of their property. Most intentional communities are not communes, though some of the communities most active in the communities movement are.

4. Myth: Most community members are young--in their twenties.

Fact: Most communities are multi-generational. In the hundreds of North American communities we know about, most members range in age from 30 to 60, with some in their 20s, some 60 and older, and many children.

5. Myth: Most communitarians are hippies.

Fact: While some of today's communities can trace their roots back to the counterculture of the `60s and `70s, few today identify with the hippie stereotype. (Moreover, many of the characteristics that identified "hippies" 25 years ago--long hair, bright clothes, ecological awareness--have become integrated into mainstream lifestyles.)

On the political spectrum, communitarians tend to be left of center. In terms of lifestyle choices, they tend to be hard working, peace loving, health conscious, environmentally concerned, and family oriented. Philosophically they tend toward a way of life which increases the options for their own members without limiting the choices of others.

6. Myth: All intentional communities are out in the boondocks.

Fact: While 54% of the communities listed in the 1995 Communities Directory are rural, 28% are urban, 10% have both rural and urban sites, and 8% don't specify.

7. Myth: Most intentional communities are organized around a particular religion or common spiritual practice.

Fact: While it's true that many groups have a spiritual focus--and most of the better-known historical communities did, such as Amana and Oneida--of the 540 North American communities listed in the Communities Directory, 65% are secular or don't specify, while only 35% are explicitly spiritual or religious.

8. Myth: Most intentional communities have an authoritarian form of governance; they follow a charismatic leader.

Fact: The reverse is true; the most common form of governance is democratic, with decisions made by some form of consensus or voting. Of the hundreds of communities we have information about, 64% are democratic, 9% have a hierarchical or authoritarian structure, 11% are a combination of democratic and hierarchical, and 16% don't specify. Many communities which formerly followed one leader or a small group of leaders have changed in recent years to a more democratic form of governance.

9. Myth: Community members all think alike.

Fact: Because communities are by definition organized around a common vision or purpose, their members tend to hold a lot of values and beliefs in common--many more than shared among a typical group of neighbors. Still, disagreements are a common occurrence in most communities, just as in the wider society. The object of community is not so much to eliminate conflict as to learn to work with it constructively.

10. Myth: Most communities are "cults."

Fact: Many sociologists and psychologists know that the popular image of "cults" and "mind control" is distorted. Both the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion have done research that refutes the idea that religious or other groups are systematically brainwashing their members or interfering with their ability to think critically.

Although the term "cult" is usually intended to identify a group in which abuse occurs, its use frequently says more about the observer than the observed. It would generally be more accurate if the observer said "a group with values and customs different from mine; a group that makes me feel uncomfortable or afraid."

Most communities are not abusive toward members. The ones which are, especially those prone to violence, can attract media attention which falsely implies that intentional communities are abusive in general. It's our experience that the overwhelming majority of communities go quietly about their business, and are considered good places to live by their members--and good neighbors by people who live around them.

11. Myth: Community members have little privacy or autonomy.

Fact: The degree of privacy and autonomy in communities varies as widely as the kinds of communities themselves. In some communities individual households own their own land and house, and have their own independent economy (perhaps with shared facilities, as in many land co-ops); their degree of privacy and autonomy is nearly identical to that of mainstream society. However, in communities with specific religious or spiritual lifestyles (such as monasteries or some meditation retreats), privacy and autonomy are typically more limited, as part of the purpose for which the community was organized. Most communities fall between these two points on the privacy/held-in-common spectrum.

The trend among intentional communities forming now is toward more individual control than was common among those which formed in the `60s and `70s. For example, one of the fastest growing segments of the communities movement today is cohousing, where residents enjoy autonomy similar to that of any planned housing development. Finding a healthy balance between individual needs and those of the community is a key issue for the `90s--in both intentional communities and the larger society in general.

12. Myth: Most members of intentional communities live impoverished lifestyles with limited resources.

Fact: Communities make a wide variety of choices regarding standard of living--some embrace voluntary simplicity, while others emphasize full access to the products and services of today's society. Communities tend to make careful choices about the accumulation and use of resources, deciding what best fits with their core values. Regardless of the choices made, nearly all communities take advantage of sharing and the opportunities of common ownership to allow individuals access to facilities and equipment they don't need to own privately (for example power tools, washing machines, pickup trucks, and in some cases, even swimming pools).

In terms of material wealth, communities evolve like families: starting off with limited resources, new communities tend to live simply. As they mature, they tend to create a stable economic base and enjoy a more comfortable life--according to their own standards. Many established communities (20 years and older) have built impressive facilities, some of which are quite innovative in design and materials. The dollars to finance these improvements have come from successful community businesses, ranging from light manufacturing to food products, from computer services to conference centers.

13. Myth: Most people who live in communities are running away from responsibilities.

Fact: Many people choose to live in community because it offers a way of life which is different, in various ways, from that of the wider society. Since living in community does not eliminate everyday responsibilities, most community members raise families, maintain and repair their land and buildings, work for a living, pay taxes, etc.

At the same time, communitarians usually perceive their lifestyle as more caring and satisfying than that of mainstream culture, and because of this--and the increased free time which results from pooling resources and specialized skills--many community members feel they can engage more effectively with the wider society. In fact, many communitarians are deeply involved in their wider community of neighbors, and often provide staffing or even leadership for various local civic and social change organizations.

from http://www.ic.org/pnp/myths.php

listening to: Uncle Riotous | Bark at the Wildchild 06

Demokrasy and Diktatorship

All democracies turn into dictatorships - but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea... That's the issue that I've been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire ... and how does a democracy become a dictatorship?

Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas

interesting... from http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/

listening to Nirvana : All Apologies

More Middle East Madness?

I recall many months before the invasion of Iraq starting to come across articles about how Iraq was on the military radar of the West (primarily the US).

Now I am discovering similar articles about Iran (I first noticed this several months ago).

I sincerely pray I am reporting the words of false prophets.

The Times Says bomb Iran

US Journalist says Pentagon Plotting to Bomb Iran
(just realised this one is from a year ago!)

===

I've just came back from a very thought-provoking film: Paradise Now, about 2 Palestinians preparing to become suicide bombers in Tel Aviv. Highly recommended, I might review it later. Also out now, of course, is Spielberg's Munich.

listening to Tony Clifton : I've Got to Be Me

Add It Up

from Creative Loafing, an Atlanta music/culture magazine May 26 - June 1st edition

Estimated cost of the new 3,000-seat North Point Ministries church to be built on Lenox Road.... $40 million

Annual budget of the largest church in Atlanta, First Baptist Church.... $13 million

Number of uninsured children in Georgia.... 166,000

Approximate cost to give a basic check-up, without blood tests or vaccines, to all those children.... $12,450,000

Approximate number of Sudanese refugees who've fled to neighbouring Chad because of tribal warfare.... 250,000

Cost to shelter and feed those refugees for one year.... $13,590,000

Minimum number of homeless people in metro Atlanta.... 37,000

Minimum number of meals provided to homeless by the Open Door Community each year.... 15,600

Annual budget of the nonprofit Open Door Community.... $440,000

Number of times Jesus lost his temper in the New Testament.... 1*




* He threw money changers out of a temple in Jerusalem

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Department of Community Health, Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Save Darfur Coalition, CARE, Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Open Door Community

Out of interest, i checked the Open Door Community website which says

The Open Door Community is a residential community in the Catholic Worker tradition (we’re sometimes called a Protestant Catholic Worker House!). We seek to dismantle racism, sexism and heterosexism, abolish the death penalty, and create the Beloved Community on Earth through a loving relationship with some of the most neglected and outcast of God’s children: the homeless and our sisters and brothers who are in prison.

listening to Flesh Eating Foundation | Unreadable Communication - Curve (FEF Remix)

Why I Wear The Poppy

Why would a pacifist wear the poppy on Anzac day? (Remembrance or Veterans day for you overseas folk.) I generally oppose war as a solution to conflict situations, but I respect those who died fighting in our armed forces, whether their cause was right or wrong

(At some point I plan to write on different varieties of pacificism, not all pacifists are alike in their approach to various situations. For example there are "nuclear pacifists" who serve in the armed forces.)

Lest we forget.


listening to Goldenhorse | Cool Pants

C@ n cer Shorts

Wandering up to work today, walking behind a woman wearing one of those ubiquitous designer bre @st c ncer awareness t-shirts. I’m wondering when we’ll see men wearing designer boxers promoting prostate c ncer awareness. I think it would be great idea, actually. Prostate c ncer kills and otherwise affects a large number of men, and is comparatively ignored and underfunded compared to bre st c ncer.


(note: edited Jan 06 due to excessive spam triggered by the word c @ n c e r )

listening to Argyle Park | Circle

14 Points of a Fascist State

This is political and thought provoking. (For my US friends, eg K, A, KJ, H, others, i love you, this is not directed at you personally. I love spending time in your country.)

14 points of a fascist state NB - the site itself which hosts this seems to contain some less edifying material - i don't recommend.

References to the original research are here and here, i haven't had time yet to look at critical reviews of his book/research.

The remix is going surprisingly well, having spent over 24 hours total working on it so far. Two nights to go before deadline, lots of FX, mastering, restructuring to go.



(thanks to Chris for the CD) listening to Natalie Merchant | River

I hate 'Asians'

No, I don't hate people from Asia. I hate the way pakeha people like me use 'Asian' as a catch-all description because they're too lazy or ill-educated to know the differences between distinct cultures. There ARE no 'Asians'. There are Chinese (mainland, Taiwanese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Hong Kong...), Indian, Malaysian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Thai...

There is a large diversity of very cool cultures that one word parroted by lazy 'Europeans' simply doesn't do justice.

I suggest next time we're too lazy to think whether they're Chinese or Cambodian - just say 'Nigger'.


Listening to NB & Sex Pistols | God Save The Queen (extended 7" mix) [AWEsome]

Police take action

Following my rant on police culture yesterday, this from the NZherald site

04.03.05
by David Eames and Louisa Cleave

Police moved swiftly yesterday to set up a sweeping inquiry into what a judge described as a "sick" culture within the force.

Announcing the investigation, Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Marshall said he wanted to maintain public confidence in the police.

"I want to assure the public that police will do everything to identify any other culprits and put an end to this abhorrent kind of behaviour as quickly as possible.

"We will go where the investigation takes us."

perhaps there is a g0d after all.

Judge says police culture is 'sick'

...the NZ Herald today reports on the conviction of a police senior sergeant. So tell us something we don't know?

I've long been concerned about the internal culture our boys and girls in blue have inculcated. Police are by definition a conservative agency, employed to enforce the government's laws.

I think we have a dilemma in who we trust to be our guardians. We hope they're moral guardians. But they're also human; hence some will be amoral or even immoral guardians. I remember being told by an admin worker at the police college in Trentham, a man in his 50's, of the way in which women were subtly denigrated there, and of police parties featuring culture and practices so dubious that they may well have resulted in arrests if they occurred elsewhere. And I could tell other stories of unwarranted police brutality, intimidation of witnesses, intimidation of victims... Granted, it's a difficult job. And there are certainly good policepeople. But the encouragement of a tough, macho, unthinking, dogmatic, sexist, even violent internal culture does nothing to help.

Still, when our whole society functions on the basis of "law" and rules as the best way to change people's behaviour, should we be surprised? That's why i find the teachings of Y'shua and his early followers interesting in this light, in their attempt to found a counterculture based on love and (jargonword alert) 'grace', not law.

'Bout time the cops got training in meditation and flower arranging methinks.

---




I won't link to the herald site as i suspect news items tend to move around a bit and the link will be out of date fast. So here's a copypaste of some of it:

03.03.05
By DAVID EAMES

A District Court judge has criticised the heavy-handed techniques of a senior South Auckland police officer and condemned a wider police culture as "sick".

That culture - as outlined in court evidence - included joke photographs of machete-wielding men making death threats, and the photographing of suspects made to wear demeaning signs.

Judge Bruce Davidson delivered his view as he found Senior Sergeant Anthony Laime Solomona guilty of assaulting a 17-year-old on the forecourt of a Manurewa service station in February last year.

And in another article:

03.03.05
by Elizabeth Binning

One of Auckland's top police officers is so fed up with his staff passing material to the media that he has sent out a special memo asking them to dob in the "traitorous actions" of their colleagues.

In a special edition of the internal newsletter CoMmunique, Counties Manukau District Commander Steve Shortland said it was disappointing to see that some staff "feel the need to sneak off to the media and let their work mates and police all over the country down". [snip]

"What sort of person does this?" he asked. "My Ethics booklet (the one you get your ethics training from) suggests a number of reasons why some individuals become traitors."

He then listed the following reasons:
* For money
* For a free lunch and drinks
* Sex
* Stupidity or lack of judgment
* All of the above

Mr Shortland finished his memo by asking police to "expose" anyone they suspected of leaking information.

---

Two comments: If the above is truly indicative of the content of the police ethics booklet, need i say more? Secondly, the desire to suppress dissent in this manner is yet another example of an organisational culture gone wrong, and rather suggestive of... heh... a police state.

[/rant]