Posted by Timothy Lynch
05-09-2007
Neighbourhood Watch to Neighbourhood Support!
In St Mary's Bay, a micro suburb in Auckland, NZ there emerged a mutation to the concept of Neighbourhood support. Where instead of peeping and spying at your neighbour, visitors and what went on in your street, it was encouraged that we support our neighbour by getting to know them better, talking with each other more often - this way there would be more social intercourse where we extended our friendships to a wider expanding circle.
It concept was supported by the large insurance company NZI - New Zealand Insurance, (now bought out) and the local police constable was also integral to how the system worked.
Unfortunately, it didn’t make it as a workable universal model, as the challenge was to obtain a volunteer to be a willing active street coordinator. However, here is an extension that could be a blue- print for the new emerging paradigm of social consciousness.
The aim is simple:
1) Divide your borough into sectors of about 25 streets, roads, and avenues.
2) Select a representative to speak for your street or section of Street. If your Street has hundreds of houses, then divide the street up to say a maximum of 35 houses/apartments, per Street co ordinators
3) The carrot to bring these Street coordinators on board would be to offer them a discount or rebate on their annual housing rates.
4) Their job would be to liaise with every house-hold representative in the street. Where they would introduce themselves and tell them that you are there to support them by being a liaison between them, the local council, as well as the police.
They explain that they write up the names of all those occupants in the house, take their phone number and advise them that if there is any pressing matters that effect them in the street, that every 1, or 2 months (to be decided by council) they (along with other Street Coordinators in the local area) will meet with the authorities to brief them of what is happening in your street. You don’t have to give the names of the people over to anyone. It remains with the St Coordinator. (Yes their is privacy requirements around this.)
You may also impress upon them security needs, when going away i.e have someone pick up their mail every day, leaving different low energy lights on in different rooms at night, etc plus anything relating to health and safety. Maybe offer them a DVD on home and street security, or discuss a w.w.web site devoted to this subject.
Finally when the Street / Road Coordinators go as a group to the local council offices they gather in front of councillors, the local police constable and possibly the Deputy Mayor and each St Coordinator is asked to give a 2 to 4 minute synopsis of what’s happening on their respective street.
Items that could be covered are:
Need for more judder bars to curtail speeding.
A need for a rubbish bin at the end of the street where, there maybe is a park/ beach etc.
That the street needs better cleaning, of debris etc.
Removal of graffiti from walls etc
That there were either no burglaries or a burglary / assault that happened on such a such a date. And what resulted.
If there was a house fire.
This meeting would possibly last for a total of one and a half to two hours. At the end of this time the Councillors, Mayor and Police would have a fairly comprehensive understanding of what’s happening throughout the community and suburb.
The above is a frame work, a blueprint with what we can possibly do to enable a peaceful system of neighbourhood support to be active nationwide.
This Neighbourhood Support concept needs central Govt and local Govt support.
And depending on how organised everyone in the street is, as well as how much time the St coordinator has, you could have a Street party, especially at Christmas where carols were sung.
Where we were at St Mary's Bay, we had a small park where we had Guy Fawkes celebration (of all ghoulish things) with bonfire and crackers for the kids, and parents would bring snacks and drinks and it was an opportunity to get to know your neighbours. We even had the neighbourhood men get together to plant a good number of daffodil bulbs in the corners of the park and they are still bursting forth every spring in increasing numbers.
As the neighbourhood representative of our street Yarborough St a very small one, I myself even went as far as producing my own news ‘broad sheet’ which I printed off for those in the street. It was an enjoyable public spirited fun thing to do for a couple of years.
The concept of Neighbourhood Support is an idea whose time has come, especially with climate change and social dysfunctionality becoming more prevalent in our society.
The need to cooperate for our common survival will become paramount!
Tags Neighbourhood, Watch,, burglaries,, care,, co-operate,, crime,, goodwill,, parties,, police., street | no comments
Posted by Timothy Lynch
06-02-2007
2007 Outlook
The Coming of the Surveillance Society?
Ordinary but unruly kids with spray cans, could be causing the ccvc (closed circuit video camera) profusion around NZ cities. (Britain has over 4 million of them.) It’s not the hardened criminals who are causing the deployment of this intrusive technology, but brats of kids, running amok with spray cans.
Yes, it’s this iritating, petty crime of
grafetti that is “becoming the cause” for the surveillance society in NZ.
Why do kids get a kick out of defacing and leaving their ‘signature’?
A big question, however it must come back to parenting where mothers and fathers need to have a closer loving presence with their children and this also translates to giving them well defined boundaries. Not letting the kids go out without a dialogue as to where they are going, what they are doing, who they are going with and what time they are expected home is ... abandoning them. On top of this, expressing to them clearly where they can not go. By telling them that you are not wanting them to go to or do certain things, puts a certain responsibility on the child to do as they are commanded as well. Also, and this is very important, the child knows that their parent/s care about them, that their is a bond, that is based on trust and love.
Regrettably here in NZ parents who are not involved with their children, and who let their kids out loose with $20 bucks or less, to be 'out of sight, out of mind. ' They are deserting their child, their gift to the world. Parents who bring children into existence must commit to their children's' security, education (learning is a better word) and health. Otherwise why have them? With many children being born to a single mother, this only acerbates the situation, and NZ has a social problem here, which is glossed over. As the household lives on a Government benefit the child gets subtly indoctrinated with poverty consciousness and when they grow up and determine how the majority of NZers live, which is in basically good decent homes, anger sets in as they see how much they have missed out and you then have a disenfranchise teenage time bomb, wandering the streets.
Then of course they are influenced so much by the media, be it local or global, which is based on commercial imperatives, and very little social or even zero consciousness. In a household, especially where TV is used as the baby sitter (parents again not parenting) and children watch hours and hours of telly, it has been estimated by researchers in the USA that by the time a child is 18 they have witnessed up to 40,000 violent acts, most involving death by every means.
So, when they go out into the world at large, and by chance find themselves in a stressful situation, (possibly aggravated by alcohol or drugs) they react with what they have been ‘programmed’ with the most ... violence.
Yet this above example is vehemently opposed by all the TV and movie media chiefs, they argue emphatically that there is definitely no connection....They are ethically bankrupt!
Then there are the music videos ... Many to most are not music with melodies and rhythm but noise and sound.
In a democracy where the people own the air waves for the radio and TV frequencies, we rent them out to commercial interests, who then bombard us with a barrage of unadulterated trash. We collectively are so foolish that we allow commercial interests to broadcast crap at our impressionable young kids that have no idea what is right from wrong. They end up lost in a lost world, all because we have elected servants to be the government and who are obviosuly unconsconcious...
(to be continued.)
With 85 million more kiddies been added to our planet every year, and they find out that not only do they have uncaring/incapable parents, they find that we are bequeathing them a planet that is over heating into a climatic melt down, how can we find ways to let them know they are wanted, cared for and that we are not depriving them a future that is long, successful and fulfilling, where that can love and laugh, play, develop close friendships and grow into the light of their own true selves.?
You want the best for your children ... yes?
Now we are beginning to witness all these world changes on our large plasma screens in our living room. What do you think we will see? Because it is coming at us in full view!
What does the future hold?
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Tags Earth, Future, Global, New, TV, Zealand, change,, children,, climate, crime,, democracy, ethics, government, grafetti, kids,, nature, planet, population, radio, society, surveilance, warming, | no comments
