This little piece conveys what it is to include environment, health and consciousness into the collective field that we are part of.
The background music is 'The Church Within' from Lex van Someren's album 'Beyond' http://www.lexvansomeren.de
The image is the view from my balcony... More »
Tims overview of the importance and urgency of what's happening on our planet now and the imperative to mobilise consciousness.
Background music "As the Earth Kissed the Moon" by Michael Stearns off the album Planetary Unfolding More »
The Good News: There is a big increase organics in NZ. In past 3 years organic produce sales have increased by 25%, organic beverages increased by 80% and organic wine has quadrupled production.
Franklin organic farmers grass roots organization of 300 people are organizing themselves by taking back control of their food supply, establishing community networks.
Humans no need to be competitive, but cooperative relationships brings connection and happiness in community
Organics NZ are still committed to be the worlds first organic country but Bhutan, Bali and Costa Rica are far closer. NZ organic growers definitely want NZ to lead.Read More »
What is it that compels a very fit and energetic octogenarian, to come back to NZ for a visit to give talks and share his insights across the Auckland region?
From the NZ navy, to the police to a farmer who went into local politics for 6 terms and realized that we should NEVER allow more than 4 terms maximum as any more than this and you lose your enthusiasm, energy and panache.
Saw town planning become so restrictive and that produced the growth of bureaucracy.
Realised in the 1960s that it was not National or Labour but 'the system' that was wrong, where Social Credit offered another viewpoint around finance and economy, he stood at different times against Bill Birch and also Winston Peters and Colin Moyle.
Always pushing the envelope he owned a health store in Australia and then 'moved on'. What motivated him was he did everything because he wanted to see how he could help people.Read More »
Leanora ~ Out of Africa, Ex IT Silicon Valley, to bee keeping, lavender grower, organic gardener of the inner self ~ a woman's journey.
When we close our eyes to the outside world and become self reflective, we realize that we are all we have got. That if we want change in the outer world, we need to recognize that we need to change within as well.
From our first breath as a baby we soak up the imprints of our first contact, to our mother, family and extended family to community.
Surrounded in love we are secure in our localized environment and this allows us to be nourished and acknowledged and find our place in life.
Leanora traveled extensively to finally find NZ and a tiny island microcosm nestled on Waiheke Island in a community who practiced organic principles.Read More »
Gavin, originally from the emerald isle of Ireland now lives in NZ, brings an insightful and holistic vision of how NZ can lead sustainability both locally and globally. And due to the unique and potent comments and articles in Element Magazine it's now becoming an important educator in both the business world as well as schools and community to looking after our children's future.
The whole idea of the Element publication is to use media to create (drive) positive change in society in a world that is all about consumerism and how we can make more money.
Using the triple bottom line and finding the balance between economic prosperity, health of the biosphere and the health of the people that live within the biosphere.Read More »
Would you imagine that any government would be stupid enough to sign an international agreement that would allow overseas corporations to sue it, in secretive offshore tribunals claiming that new laws and regulations (for example a ban on fracking, GE, smoking control laws or a cap on electricity prices) have seriously undermined the value of their investments?
Well, that is what the New Zealand Government and ten other countries around the Pacific Rim are negotiating right now under the TPPA, the secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, and President Obama wants it signed by October of this year. Of course the country that has the most to gain will be the US and their corporations!
And do you really think the US needs our dairy products – the sale of which is the supposed benefit for NZ by joining the TPPA?
From what has been gleaned so far, if the negotiations are completed it will make it much harder for governments to pass new laws, to look after the environment, promote health, protect workers (from longer hours, less pay and possibly shorter holidays) and consumers, less stringent quality control, and very importantly not promote the public interest as it defers to lobbyists and private privileged interests.Read More »
Dr Christoph Schumacher: Professor of Innovation and Economics, Massey University Auckland, posits the question from his recent exceptionally well attended public lecture.
"I saw this professorial lecture as a chance to say what I’ve really wanted to say for years, that our current economic mantra is always about growth, but continuous economic growth is not environmentally sustainable, and it is not making us happy.
"Should we be aiming for continual economic growth within a finite environment?"
In other words, are we New Zealanders becoming more happier and less stressed with our current economic system of unrelenting economic growth that consumes resources and pollutes our planet?
‘There’s not a single country (other than possibly Bhutan) on this planet that doesn’t have economic growth as one of its key targets. But we have to stop and ask ourselves why?
'The drive for greater growth and productivity is depleting our resources without satisfying our material desires. He has linked current GDP growth with various happiness surveys and found the more we grow our national wealth, the less happy we become.'
This interview covers areas of where innovation needs to be encouraged with more readily available financial resources, tax incentives (and disincentives) as well as better planning and know how.Read More »
Robina McCurdy: Community development facilitator, Organic gardener,Permaculture Educator, Land-use designer and Food localiser.
One of the best known permaculture teachers in NZ, Robina has taken her innovative approach to South Africa and into their schools the 'Permaculture curriculum' and assisted large numbers of people to become more self reliant and sustainable in growing of gardens and food production. Especially in squatter settlements, which have been funded by the NZ High Commission, where she trained up teams so as to make herself redundant, which is totally in opposition to todays economic ways which wants you to become 'dependent on the system.’
Starting young on an organic market garden in Christchurch, in an extended family in Harewood planting and harvesting was a joyful thing with aunties and uncles and cousins and the experiencing and knowing of community and connection with the land, and in particular the feeling that this was perfectly normal and not a rare event, and this 'connection' never left her.
Robina, has for the last 30 years lived in the Tui Community, a land co-op and charitable trust next to the Able Tasman National Park in Golden Bay, growing their own food and that, by extension the land has become embodied within her, and at very deep levels. To co-exist with wild life as well, all within an overarching cosmology that is embedded in Permaculture. Being a true marriage of the environment and the needs of the people.
Working in co operation with nature … then once nestled in, can start with growing food, then shelter and housing, community etc … a food forest.Read More »
Robert, from the far North in North Auckland is a vegetable grower who decided back in 1997 and with one other founded the Whangarei growers market. This market is the largest and oldest market of its kind in New Zealand and by many accounts is one of the most thriving growers (farmers) markets in the country, attracting between 4500 to 5000 shoppers every Saturday morning.
It is a 'David vs Goliath' success story that has enabled growers once on the brink of ruin, who were sick of the supermarket chains squeezing their returns, reorganized themselves and broke free. The market has grown by word of mouth and social networking and does absolutely no advertising to sell direct to the public.
This interview covers the challenges faced, the food that is produced, virtually all spray free, and moving towards more organic, fruit veggies, dairy, meat, fish, honey and is a place where relationships develop between suppliers and the public.
This is a place for small to medium growers to sell their produce, based on a set of simple principles that do not allow in the big boys and is a superb example of community coming together for mutual benefit.
GE Free Northland is also covered in this interview.Read More »
Glenn, a New Zealander, has just returned from Schumacher College in Devon in the UK which runs courses around sustainability, using a transformative approach in helping organisations understand and find solutions.
In this interview, our planet is personified by referring to 'her' in her ancient name as Gaia, and is mentioned as science and reality combine, with ancient knowledge we realise that of all the major planets in our solar system, only Venus has a female name, yet the ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago had a name for 'mother earth' and they called her Gaia, 'from her all things issued'.
The many cycles of life on our planet, either cycle through the ocean or have contact with it as it's a gigantic dynamic system, in many ways the blood stream for the planetary body, which is 3.5% salt which in a uncanny way mirrors the salt percentage in the human body.
This interview covers the wholeness of our ocean planet, in that all oceans are interconnected.
The ocean is the life blood of our planet.Read More »
Iceland was the first of the economies to collapse in the increasing list of countries affected by the corrupt banking system.
After most people lost their savings, how did the people of Iceland survive? How have they moved from a complete financial collapse in 2008 to a successful functioning "local economy”?
After the collapse on October 2008 actor, singer and gay rights activist Hordur Torfason planted himself outside parliament. Every day for a week he stood in the same spot and asked the people two questions. The first, do you know what has happened in this country? The second, do you have any ideas about what we can do about it?
By gauging opinion on the streets, and through innovative social media, he devised three demands which reflected the people’s immediate wishes: the government should resign, the board of the financial supervisorial authority should resign, and the board of the national bank should resign.
Within three months and in extremely cold and wet conditions, Torfason inspired thousands of people to take intelligent action resulting in radical change in Iceland’s government and economy. All of this was achieved peacefully.Read More »
Digest: showing activity in non-member only areas for the last 30 days
