How To Get There 21/4/19

56 comments on “How To Get There 21/4/19 ”

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1. RedLogix 1

   21 April 2019 at 7:07 am

   Andrew Yang is the only Democrat candidate to put the impact of automation and a Universal Basic Income at the centre of his policy. As with all Joe Rogan interviews it's long, but it covers a lot of interesting ground and I really enjoyed it:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsEzmFamZ8
   • Jenny - How to get there? 1.1

     21 April 2019 at 9:50 am

     Wonderful stuff.

     If I didn't have to go to my full time slavey job just to pay the bills. I could garden more.

     If you love gardening you could too.

     If all the other people who love gardening, gardened too, we could feed our local community. If all the gardeners fed our communities, the supermarkets with their automated checkouts, and robotised shelf stackers, and automated delivery trucks, right back to the automated apple pickers and harvesters would stand idle for lack of customers.

     Maybe all us without a college education would end up putting the coders out of work

     And if you now drive a truck but would prefer to build a yacht in your garage, good for you too.*

     Good for Andrew Yang. He doesn't want to be President. He wants to raise the issue to mainstream it.

     Everyone should watch this video to the end.

     Thanks to RedLogix

     *And maybe when you are finished you could give my grandchildren a ride in it.
     • RedLogix 1.1.1

       21 April 2019 at 12:34 pm

       A lot of the pleasure in this is Joe's talent at drawing people out in an intelligent, warm-hearted manner. In the past few years he's developed an astounding reach for such a simple format.
2. Robert Guyton 2

   21 April 2019 at 8:20 am

   If you enjoy sitting around a fire, thinking about life…

   https://dark-mountain.net/in-the-age-of-fire/
   • Dennis Frank 2.1

     21 April 2019 at 8:59 am

     Fire reveries are always good when the fire is safe in the hearth, contained. Climate-change induced firestorms are being produced by Gaia in response to global capitalism forcing climate change on both her and us. Democracy ensures that voters continue to make things worse.

     The writer prefers a literary stance to activism. "In conversation with Nick Hunt, novelist Richard Powers, whose latest novel The Overstory places the more-than-human at the centre of the narrative, points out that ‘there is no separate thing called humanity, any more than there is a separate thing called nature.’"

     Gaian gnosis has seeped through into the literary community, then. Some would argue that humans have always known they are part of nature – but that would deny the historical impact of scientism, and promethean technology, making westerners believe they are superior and separate.

     Greens absorbed Lovelock's Gaian theory in the eighties, yet symbiosis of humanity and nature remains a work in progress. Sustainable economics has been embraced by the establishment as desirable, but the shift from aspiration to praxis is still pending. Not enough disasters to shift the complacent, the lazy, and those addicted to the neoliberal prescription – such as the coalition. More disasters, please!
     • Robert Guyton 2.1.1

       21 April 2019 at 9:04 am

       You can't swim till the water's up to your bum.
       • Incognito 2.1.1.1

         21 April 2019 at 1:01 pm

         But you can drown in water that is only face-deep …
3. Robert Guyton 3

   21 April 2019 at 8:44 am

   We've been gifted a teepee by a local artist; he built it from corrugated iron and timber and painted it, gaily, in blues and yellows. It's big. And heavy. We transported it from where it sat in front of his house by the beach, to the berm outside of the community forest garden in which it is to sit to provide shelter for tired travellers or fruit-gatherers not wishing to get rained upon. The teepee is too big for the gateway and will have to be lifted over the fence. I'm calling on 5 strong friends today, to help with the heft.
   • vto 3.1

     21 April 2019 at 8:53 am

     Its too much Robert. Perhaps ask the ancient Egyptians – they managed to lift and move 200 tonne blocks with not much more than man-muscle… or so today's Egyptians would have us believe..

     Post photos
4. Robert Guyton 4

   21 April 2019 at 8:56 am

   Put down a brew. That’s what home brewers of beer do when they’re thinking ahead to the warm days of summer and want to sped an hour or two, sitting on the veranda, enjoying their gardens and each other’s company and that’s what I did yesterday, only my brew’s not for drinking. Instead of hops and barley, my brew consisted of sheep manure and molasses and I’ve no plan at all to drink it! The plants in my nursey will though and that’ll put some colour in their cheeks! I’ve always made brews of some sort with which I can feed my plants; barrels of comfrey leaves or seaweed left for months to turn to soup, stinky and dark, but this time around I got a bit more technical with the process; not much more, just a little. Where usually I did nothing more than the occasional stir with a stick found nearby, bringing the heavier material to the surface where it released it pongy, anaerobic gasses into the air, this time around I applied some science to the project and aerated the mix; in this case water and sheep manure that arrived in a bag in pelletized form, by squirting the hose, my thumb pressed tightly on the end to produce a blast that fizzed the contents of the barrel up to a froth. By forcing air into the brew in this way, I changed the way the brew behaved, frightening off the anaerobic bacteria that make the stink so often associated with home made liquid fertilizers, and encouraged the aerobic microbes that make sweeter smells. To make things even sweeter, I added molasses, about a cup full, to feed the little organisms that I hoped would flourish in the conditions. The whole process only took a couple of days, as opposed to the several months required by the other method, and I will start using it today, when the numbers of beneficial bacteria in the brew should be at their highest and the fragrance it’s best. My plan is to use the liquid on the plants in my nursery; note, it's best not to apply this odoriferous mix on days that are very hot and still; the pong will hang over the neighbourhood like a nose-wrinkling blamange and you will fall out of favour with them, temporarily, as I did 🙂
   • Dennis Frank 4.1

     21 April 2019 at 9:08 am

     Here's a creative project for you then: find a T-shirt, get some fabric paint, write `support your local alchemist' on it. Then, when folks ask what kind of alchemy you do, give them the example you just described. Or, if feeling curt, just say `green'.
     • Robert Guyton 4.1.1

       21 April 2019 at 9:18 am

       Funny that you say that, Dennis; in conversation with a visiting musician here yesterday, we discussed the title alchemist and how it applied to some of the activities we are involved in and they were quite a number 🙂 Our conversation though, began with talk of shadow puppetry and it's mesmerising quality. We have several large canvas tents and the two of us had plenty of ideas on how we could project and perform onto and from those, depending upon where the audience was sitting; inside or outside of the tents.
       • Dennis Frank 4.1.1.1

         21 April 2019 at 10:40 am

         Traditional artistry, that.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave " Plato's Cave, was presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work Republic (514a–520a) to compare "the effect of education (παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature". Thus begins the wiki, and then it wanders off the point into philosopy.

         The point, which all the contributors somehow manage to miss, is how social reality is constructed by education. Instead of teaching kids survival skills, teachers, compelled by govt & tradition via curriculum, teach them antiquated crap in the guise of conventional wisdom.

         Despite being brainwashed into simplemindedness, kids are then somehow expected to mature into adults and cope with a complex modern world. No wonder the coalition thinks neoliberalism is their only option!

         The moral choice in education is providing kids with the conceptual framework they will need to cope with future challenges. At best, teachers do now teach green thinking. I doubt they teach the social skills required to make it effective. Those skills are what kids must acquire to actualise an optimal future.
         • Robert Guyton 4.1.1.1.1

           21 April 2019 at 12:35 pm

           Would you give your grandson a toy bulldozer for Christmas?

           We educate by modelling and our approval by choosing. Do we unconsciously strengthen the culture that is destroying the place by our simple actions?

           Would you sing, "Old McDonald had a farm" to your granddaughter?
           • Dennis Frank 4.1.1.1.1.1

             21 April 2019 at 1:01 pm

             No. Yes. No. I recall smacking my daughter twice. She's been a very well-adjusted adult a long time now, so no regrets. My father probably only smacked me several hundred times in my very early years, before progressing to thrashings with various implements several thousand times during the bulk of my childhood. However the most I counted per day was five thrashings, and I probably didn't get more than a dozen of those bad days, so it could have been worse. But I'm living proof that tradition can be overcome by choice.

             So I'm the last person likely to ever let teachers and educators off the moral hook. I know those wankers are choosing safety in numbers. You could argue they are too stupid to comprehend the link between the brainwashing and the future of the children. True for many. Most? I'm sceptical.
         • greywarshark 4.1.1.1.2

           22 April 2019 at 5:30 pm

           Good ideas about ed.

           Some from Ivan Illich et al.
           http://thackara.com/mobility-design/speed-what-speed-prisoners-of-speed-by-ivan-illich-part-3-of-3/
           From the programme of the conference, and from the tone of those lectures I have heard so far, it is obvious that I am addressing people imprisoned in the age of speed. Common sense tells them that some idea of ‘space over time’ and, more generally, ‘process correlated with time’, is part and parcel of all cultures. The task incumbent on the three of us, then, is that of shaking your common sense. We know that the idea of speed is assuredly historical. Starting with the late Middle Ages, concern with speed emerged and, step by step, decisively contributed to the era of machines and motors. By 1996, the historical Epoch of Speed lies behind us. During that time, homo technologicus had been harried by the experience of speed: from home to factory, through schools and jobs, from work to vacation, forever suffering time-scarcity on a tight schedule run by the clock. Rush shaped the mood.

           If today you are still hurried, it is a mark of your privilege, a sign that you have not yet been forced from the culture of time-scarcity into a new period of the megahertz and unemployment. RPM and labour-power are eclipsed by MHz. Transformations in production, switching from employees to computers, from classroom to the Internet, from clerks to credit cards, have not prepared us for this new culture, the age of the megahertz; it is based on the speed of light. In this new epoch, also the age of the constant c, real time processes simulate global omnipresence, and do get us electronically from here to there, but the experience of the in-between, which fed the speed addiction of modern man, is gone.
           • greywarshark 4.1.1.1.2.1

             22 April 2019 at 6:08 pm

             ted talk https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

             "Nobody has a clue and yet we are educating children for it?"

             Alexander Sutherland Neill believed children should achieve self-determination and should be encouraged to think critically rather than blindly obeying. He implemented his ideas with the founding of Summerhill School in 1921. Neill believed that children learn better when they are not compelled to attend lessons. The school was also managed democratically, with regular meetings to determine school rules. Pupils had equal voting rights with school staff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School

             Abbotsholme School – Wikipedia (spread to schools such as Bedales School (1893), King Alfred School, London (1898) and St Christopher School, Letchworth (1915))

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbotsholme_School

             Abbotsholme School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school. The school is situated on a 140-acre campus on the banks of the River Dove in …

             Former pupils‎: ‎Old Abbotsholmians

             Motto‎: ‎Glad Day Love and Duty

             Headmaster‎: ‎Robert Barnes

             Age‎: ‎2 to 18

             Progressive education around the world

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_education
   • greywarshark 4.2

     21 April 2019 at 12:04 pm

     Thanks Robert

     That's helpful stuff for the aspiring good gardener. But after reading your wisdom about making it less odiferous, it sounds as if it still carries a noticeable pong.
     • Robert Guyton 4.2.1

       21 April 2019 at 12:36 pm

       It was a rich, earthy smell that I liked, but they found too strong. Till the wind blew, then, all good!
       • greywarshark 4.2.1.1

         21 April 2019 at 12:45 pm

         Back in the early 70's when travelling across Belgium farmers would often be muck-spreading and that was a bit pongy for all of us advanced-techologically-moved peeps. Perhaps we have to get used to designated days during designated seasons being pongy all in the interests of living closer to what nature likes. If you know it is for a short time only, then resignation can set in without anxiety.
   • gsays 4.3

     21 April 2019 at 4:17 pm

     you had me with brewing.

     the beauty of those teas is that its a great way to turn a pest into a resource, eg dock plants. cramming a 44 gallon drum with them, cover with water….

     I would be fibbing to say I am unfamiliar with fermented apple juice however.

     gardening has taken a back seat to wage slavery, villa maintenance, renovations and home brewing.

     yesty, bottled a hopped smoked chilli cider.

     as I type this I am enjoying a lovely dark beer .

     like gardening, time after effort yields satisfaction, particularly when shared..
5. vto 5

   21 April 2019 at 9:05 am

   People should read the media report this weekend on tourism effect in Westland.. https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/04/the-tourist-trap/

   .. dang, why are we so obsessed with the growth of tourism? I see nothing good coming from it. Nothing. The jobs are useless, generally. The income miserly. The driving scary. The complaints when roads and bridges give out annoying. The poo and rubbish disgusting.

   And most of all the more tourists the less wilderness ffs, which is what they come to see.

   Tell you a funny thing tho – wandering around these remote western places I see nobody. Very rarely to never do I come across others. Yet I do see lots of tourists when I get to certain spots – the shops. The shops have lots of tourists. The shops are packed with tourists. They come for the shops – they don't want to actually experience wilderness, just gawk at it long enough for a photo, then its back to the shops. Shops. Shops.

   Shops shops shops

   Nuts

   No need to desecrate our last remaining wild places for tourists who would rather go to the shops

   Brainless
   • RedLogix 5.1

     21 April 2019 at 9:19 am

     As a long term supporter of Permolat myself I'm impressed with this article. Andrea Vance has done a great job exploring many of the aspects.

     While it's fair to say most Permolat (probably all) members are loyal to the hard-core tramping experience that places the authenticity of the effort and skill to get to the places above all else, there is no question that as a tourism nation we need to develop more intelligent and meaningful experiences for our visitors, most of whom are not able to tramp into these locations.

     And of course there is the unspoken irony that Permolat as a group depend on helicopters to enable work groups to do much of it's work.

     https://vimeo.com/331151600
     • Ad 5.1.1

       21 April 2019 at 12:32 pm

       Very balanced response there Red.

       I went to Fox Glacier in January and it was so evident that the village will die when the glacier goes – and that's not too far off from what I saw.

       The township has been so poorly managed for so long, with an appalling sewerage system that led to a totally corrupt contract mid-2018, a rubbish dump they put in line with a braided river overflow, almost zero attempt to repair local roads and bridges (other than when NZTA really steps in), and the entire economy reliant on just 5 months of a year.

       I want to see a government require us to make explicit tradeoffs between tourism experiences that are high in income, versus intensive dairying which is ruinous and now on the West Coast will serve no one's interests but those of its new Chinese owners.
     • greywarshark 5.1.2

       21 April 2019 at 12:47 pm

       Let the tourists become part of the work party. If they are city dwellers who have never had to do anything much physical except tie their shoe laces (and they probably wear zip boots) it would be An Experience Rare and Life-Changing.
   • greywarshark 5.2

     21 April 2019 at 12:13 pm

     Overseas tourists feed money into NZ which registers on the money-receiving meters before a lot of it flows out again to overseas investors.

     But it gives the impression we have a good little earner which we need so it doesn't appear that we only have milk. Milk actually does earn much for NZ

     in that it is all produced here and if the farm owners were all NZs the income would stay here. But at VTO has stated our leaders are brainless – they have had theirs sucked out by international capitalism and the eager beavers with money here who want to wank about with the other plutocrats in the world, ‘Look how good I am and I'm up with all the play and flow at the international finance casino; look for my chips I have a whole country, not many of you can top that’.

     I think we who care about having an enterprising country will have to register which outfit is NZ owned, or the size of a part, and try to boost our own enterprise – taking our country’s direction to a new route with our goodwill and support and CHOICE.

     (My comment will have strange spacings – the google settings have taken over my comment box and I am not able to press the enter key now without the wording shooting down to give a double space.)
   • Incognito 5.3

     21 April 2019 at 1:14 pm

     The Coromandel is slowly turning into a more spread-out and slightly cheaper version of Omaha with more and more shops popping up. For the Kiwi ‘tourists’ mainly …
6. Ad 6

   21 April 2019 at 10:36 am

   David Attenborough is 92. He brings that length of time, his global span, and his clarity, to his features.

   He's been the world's most powerful communicator about our relationship to nature.

   Here he is on climate change. Nothing new, but still very powerful for its broad impact in the English-specaking world.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ypaUH57MO4
   • Poission 6.1

     21 April 2019 at 12:20 pm

     Nothing new

     No fact is better authenticated than that of the beneficial influence exerted by the presence of forests on the climate and rainfall of a country, and, on the other hand, of the injurious effects on both that is brought about by the destruction of forests, or by their absence.

     In this way their destruction has often become a real calamity to a country, and has proved to be one of those errors which nothing can excuse, and which nothing but a resort to years of tree-planting, in order to replace, the forests destroyed, can remedy. That this is not an exaggerated view to take of the subject, is shown when we know the evil effects produced in many countries by the denudation of their forests

     http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_12/rsnz_12_00_000690.html

     1879
     • Robert Guyton 6.1.1

       21 April 2019 at 12:38 pm

       The dominant culture fears and therefore hates, trees. It's what's hidden in the leafy shadows that they fear. People, who are green.
       • Poission 6.1.1.1

         21 April 2019 at 12:45 pm

         But it is an lack of fear (for both parties) for one to share (of the plentiful) to one that needs the necessary (remembering to also not bite the hand that feeds you)

         https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/feeding-polar-bears-tank-1950/
       • greywarshark 6.1.1.2

         21 April 2019 at 1:23 pm

         Spiritual effect on us of giant trees apparently everlasting amongst people who don't worship 'progress'.

         https://upliftconnect.com/astounding-connection-between-people-and-trees/

         Need – https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/09/earth-home-3-trillion-trees-half-many-when-human-civilization-arose

         Looking at early humans and trees, there was development of civilisation in areas that were sparsely forested. It seems that man could only advance by chopping down trees. Now pohutukawas have to go because of our want to see the sea by we tree-haters.

         Forests and Human Progress from the American Geographical Society. https://www.jstor.org/stable/207748?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

         In the Old World…civilisations arose in hot and dry regions…Within the "rainless belt" extending across North Africa, Arabia, Persia and on through Tibet into Mongolia…have come all the conquering races of the Old World.
7. Ad 7

   21 April 2019 at 12:13 pm

   This film is on at the moment in selected theaters.

   I went to it at the Academy Cinema in Auckland.

   The protagonist takes effective sabotage action against the Rio Tinto smelter in Iceland. Now, I'm not proposing sabotage as a response to climate change inaction, but I admired her courage and determination. Yes, it does have a very Tale of Two Cities surprise twist ending, which I'm confident you'll all love.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T799cMsJHI
   • RedLogix 7.1

     21 April 2019 at 2:55 pm

     Looks like a lot of fun 🙂
     • Jenny - How to get there? 7.1.1

       22 April 2019 at 8:22 am

       Personally speaking. I am not a great fan of individualistic actions, which always, no matter how well intentioned, skirt close to terrorism.
       • RedLogix 7.1.1.1

         22 April 2019 at 8:36 am

         True and I thought about that. Yet stories, drama and art are a form of catharsis, a way of imagining and testing ideas without direct consequence.
8. greywarshark 8

   21 April 2019 at 12:33 pm

   I spotted this around some books sent to me, I like newspaper inner wrapping.

   The headline sounds good so I'm putting it up an an example I have found of a housing project that could be good and an example of government being forced into doing something when they can't hive off their responsibilities to some speculator looking for a buck.

   https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/109545173/sustainable-apartment-plan-chosen-for-crownowned-christchurch-site

   <i>Homeowners could share cars and bikes and co-own energy facilities in a new non-profit housing project announced for central Christchurch.

   The 150-home development is planned for the taxpayer-owned 8000 square metre demonstration village site opposite Latimer Square. The preferred developers are promising homes 10 to 20 per cent cheaper than than those from private sector.

   It would be a definite change of approach for the now-vacant land, which the Crown has so far been unable to find developers for.</i>

   Under that is info from Fletchers our Australasian company who are apparently handling it, and I hope they are being carefully monitored by Christchurch City Council and whatever agencies they fob their inspections off to. Hope for the coffee drinking, urban hip set?

   <i>One Central will be a vibrant, connected, urban community offering a variety of homes to … and open green spaces, this will be the new beating heart of inner city Christchurch. … Currently under construction – due for completion in spring 2019.</i>

   https://www.fletcherliving.co.nz/developments/canterbury/one-central/

   My italics aren’t working like they did. I probably have to highlight and then use google instructions – can’t be bothered. It’s up now I get sick of coping with the whims of program developers.
   • Andre 8.1

     21 April 2019 at 1:13 pm

     When you want italics, just click on the italic capital I in the row of buttons along the top of the comment box. Then when you want to go back to plain text, click it again. Go on, do some experimenting.

     Or if you’ve written your comment outside the comment box and pasted it in, forget the arrow brackets palaver, just select the bits you want italicised and click the I button.

     The linking tool between the strikeout and flag buttons is really nice and easy to use, even if it looks more like a messed-up infinity symbol than a bit of chain.
     • greywarshark 8.1.1

       21 April 2019 at 1:27 pm

       Thanks. These days you can never say thanks I am happy with what I have got, there must be Change, constant Change to keep ahead. Of what I wonder – looking behind me to see the monster?
     • gsays 8.1.2

       21 April 2019 at 4:30 pm

       Hi Andre, any simple reason why i cant enter text to reply to someone on my phone (huawei)?

       When I click to reply, the cursor blinks in the ‘Name (Required)’ field beside my autofilled name, with the keyboard on screen.

       Then when I click the comment area, the keyboard disappears…
       • Andre 8.1.2.1

         21 April 2019 at 4:44 pm

         Dunno. I have just done this reply on my phone and it seems fine
       • Andre 8.1.2.2

         21 April 2019 at 4:50 pm

         Maybe tap in the comment area again? On my phone that toggles it between displaying and hiding the keyboard. Sorry, I'm really not an expert and none of the kids are in the house.
         • gsays 8.1.2.2.1

           21 April 2019 at 4:53 pm

           chur,
9. greywarshark 9

   21 April 2019 at 5:03 pm

   Homeless advocates and social change.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Issue_(Australia)

   Housing support project – In 2015 The Big Issue Australia founded a project called Homes for Homes, an initiative that will help raise an ongoing supply of new funding for social and affordable houses. The voluntary initiative encourages homeowners, property developers and banks to make a tax deductible donation of 0.1 per cent of their property price, at the time they sell. Funds raised through Homes for Homes are distributed to social housing providers to build properties based on the areas of greatest housing need.[7]

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Issue – The background.

   Allotments for the people with no garden, trying to stop the second generation from getting rid of resources that benefited their parents, and which should continue to exist benefitting a new generation who still need them, even if the older generation do not.

   – Victoria Jubilee Allotments, Birmingham – an investigation as to why 210 allotments land is not wanted and is derelict. Yet there is a waiting list on the one nearby. Why?

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMymGBDEk4I
10. greywarshark 10

    21 April 2019 at 5:21 pm

    Do we understand people living in distress from day to day? Can we not offer them enough help for them to manage better, even if not to generally acceptable levels above basic. This is one story.

    Stuart Shorter was born in 1968 in a condemned cottage on the edge of Cambridge, his father a gypsy, his mother a barmaid. He was a gentle, conscientious child, but after being molested by a family friend he demanded to be put in a children's home. It was the greatest mistake he ever made. He became a pupil of Keith Laverack, a paedophile known as "Captain Hook" who was then working in Cambridgeshire children's homes and who in 1996 was jailed for 18 years.

    Violence flavoured most of Shorter's life. As a boy, he would beat his head against tables and walls at every public opportunity "just to make them think I was mad, so they'd leave me alone, stop bullying me about my muscular dystrophy". His adult life was spent almost entirely in detention centres and prisons, where he prided himself on being both unstoppable and unbothered by punishment. "Physical pain is like a release. It takes away what's going on up in me head."

    But note this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart:_A_Life_Backwards In 1998, following a five-year jail sentence for armed robbery, Shorter's life reached its lowest ebb. Whilst living in a subterranean multi-storey car park, he was rescued by two outreach workers, and was found a flat to live in. He subsequently became one of the first people to bring The Big Issue into Cambridge, and his work as an activist for the homeless began when he presented a short BBC2 documentary, Private Investigations, denouncing police plans to ban homeless people from the city centre.

    In 1999, Shorter became a leading figure in the campaign to release Ruth Wyner and John Brock, the Director and Day Centre Manager of Wintercomfort for the Homeless, who had been sent to prison because some of the people they were looking after had been secretly trading drugs on the charity's premises.[9] Shorter negotiated with police to organise marches and vigils, and arranged the campaign's most successful gesture, a three-day sleep-out of homeless people outside the Home Office in London – which ended in the release of the "Cambridge Two" after just six months.

    Bur it became too much and he died in 2002. Looking at what he had been through didn't he achieve wonderful things for his fellows. And the mindless stupidity of people in charge setting unreasonable targets like no drugs on the management of a hostel for the very needy! Incredible. The wording of the contract should have said that there needed to be close control on drugs, and rules inhibiting their use.

    We need to listen to people who are helping others to manage themselves in the hostile environment that we have all enabled our 'civilisation' to be. People get shot 'en masse and suddenly there is the response "This is not us". They mean this is not what I want to be faced with' as they have managed to turn their heads away from our unpleasant reality, coldly and despising the sufferers for decades.
11. greywarshark 11

    21 April 2019 at 6:16 pm

    This is a video that Jenny How …. put up in the Titanic post. It relates to Vancouver and their attempts to get better occupancy rates using a 1%tax.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDT0PQfnimU&feature=youtu.be
    • Jenny - How to get there? 11.1

      22 April 2019 at 8:49 am

      Thanks Grey. For the acknowledgement.

      More than a year later from its first introduction in Vancouver, the results for the Empty Homes Tax have been mixed.

      First off it has been viciously opposed and fought all the way by the powerful interests around the speculators and landlords, who look like to, and feel confident that they can, get the measure repealed.

      One of the main criticisms of the EHT by the Right is that it is just another Liberal tax grab.

      And in fact that is how it has turned out. Many of the owners of the empty homes have paid the tax rather than rent their houses out or sell them.

      The Mayor of Vancouver a little bit embarrassed at this unexpected tax windfall has promised that the money raised would be put into the construction of emergency housing.

      The problem in my view, is that set at 1% of a property's rateable value, the EHT is not punitive enough.

      The Right, of course, are calling for the tax to be scrapped.

      The Vancouver City Council instead of giving up in the face of the Right's hostility need to double down, increase the level of this EHT until, instead of paying the tax the wealthy owners start putting these houses back into the use they were built for, housing families.

      5%, 10%, may have to be the level to get the speculators to finally put these houses back into the housing market.

      Any suggestion to bring in such a tax here should also consider setting it at a level, where instead of raising revenue, the EHT actually works to increase the housing stock available to renters and families wanting to buy.

      The other more darker attack line of the Right is to try and blame the housing crisis on foreigners and migrants, particularly in Vancouver Asians.

      This racist channelling into scape goating migrants for the city’s housing shortage is right out of the Trump playbook.

      https://globalnews.ca/news/4887432/vancouver-empty-homes-tax-increase/
      • Jenny - How to get there? 11.1.1

        22 April 2019 at 9:32 am

        Left or Right?

        There are two choices to address the housing crisis

        An EHT to address the shortage of housing especially in Auckland would be a measure to get the 33,000 empty houses in Auckland back into circulation.

        Or, a racist divisive scapegoating campaign that doesn't address the issue and sets people against each other,while letting the majority of speculators and land bankers off the hook.

        http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/is-new-zealand-s-ban-on-foreign-home-buyers-sensible-or-downright-raci-10

        <blockquote>

        …..Although Peters himself said he saw no harm in it, his assertion that “two Wongs don’t make a white,” was widely viewed as offensive and even incendiary.

        Such a crack might have meant political death for others, but Peters survived and has thrived. His nationalist NZ First party is the kingmaker in the new coalition government helmed by Labour Party Leader Prime Minister Jacinta Arden. And memories of his off-colour remarks have been stirred by a move to exclude international buyers from the Kiwi property scene.

        Minted in October, the government is pushing through a bill to ban foreign property purchases despite concerns that it will have little to no effect on one of the world’s least affordable housing markets.

        The bill will change the Overseas Investment Act so that only citizens and permanent residents will be able to purchase existing property without a lengthy screening process. Opponents believe the move was political grandstanding for administration partners Labour Party and NZ First….

        </blockquote>

        It has long been my view that the second path leads to more racism more division, more inequality of housing outcomes, and a smouldering resentment directed at our most vulnerable communities.

        No matter how much the Right Wing political representatives of the rentier class may hate it, an effective EHT is imperative.
        • greywarshark 11.1.1.1

          22 April 2019 at 5:17 pm

          From

          Open Mike 4/22/2019 (Housing with a zing I think.)

          Molly 10

          22 April 2019 at 12:23 pm

          Up late last night watching how-to renovation videos on Youtube, and came across this new series by Grand Designs – The Street.

          How did Grand Designs: The Street come about?

          'I went to The Netherlands on a trip with a bunch of leaders of local councils and politicians in 2010 to look at a large self-build town there, Almere, built on reclaimed land near Amsterdam. The Dutch have always stolen a march on us in terms of housing initiatives. Now, Almere is full of self-built homes, but nine years ago it was already advancing, and I got so excited I had to go and see Channel 4, simply to say ‘it’s amazing what’s happening there, let’s film it’. It was a sort of self-build heaven.

          Meanwhile, a small local authority at Bicester, Cherwell District Council, had also been bitten by the Almere bug. In fact, they wanted to replicate Almere and facilitate Britain's first self-build and custom-build site on a grand scale. They were negotiating with the MOD to buy an old military site as they wanted to see what it would be like if they invited the general public to build their own homes. It’s this experiment that we’ve been following for the last 5 years. In the process, we’ve witnessed the first 10 pioneering households build a street of very different homes. But it’s just the start. Ultimately there will be thousands of homes, some social housing, some custom-build as well as self-build. I believe it’s a model that could be copied by local authorities up and down the land.'

          A better solution – I think – then selling off crown or local government land to developers to provide housing. Another not mentioned benefit is that you end up with a long-term community, made up of a variety of people from all walks of life, instead of what we have now in many areas – segregation by economics.

          First episode currently on Youtube:

          Grand Designs – The Street – Episode 1
12. greywarshark 12

    21 April 2019 at 11:22 pm

    Population, there are social effects on playing politics instead of working with responsible informed people in the field.

    https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/essay/you-should-be-worrying-about-the-woman-shortage

    We are learning right now what happens when the sex ratio becomes wildly out of whack, through a huge unintended experiment. In the world’s two most populated countries—China and India—there is a serious woman shortage.

    For example, for several decades in China, the most populated country in the world, sex ratios at birth have been much higher than 105, sometimes exceeding 120 boys for every 100 girls. Many parts of India, the second most populated country, have also, for decades, had a sex ratio at birth significantly higher than 105. The consequence is that in those countries combined—which together have a population of about 2.73 billion—there are now an estimated 80 million extra men. “Nothing like this has happened in human history,” the Washington Post wrote in an April 2018 article.

    In India, many families used sex-selective abortion to choose boys, prompting the passage of a law that made it illegal to screen for the sex of the fetus and conduct sex-selective abortions. In China, similar decisions were encouraged by the “one-child” policy in place from 1979 to 2015, which prompted many parents to decide that their sole child must be a boy. …

    The woman shortage is having harmful consequences in China and sometimes in neighboring countries. Human Rights Watch looked at one of those consequences for a report forthcoming in 2019 focused on bride-trafficking from Myanmar to China. In Myanmar’s Kachin and northern Shan states, bordering China, long-standing conflict escalated in recent years, displacing over 100,000 people. Traffickers prey on vulnerable women and girls, offering jobs in, and transport to, China. Then they sell them, for around $3,000 to $13,000, to Chinese families struggling to find brides for their sons. Once purchased, women and girls are typically locked in a room and raped repeatedly, with the goal of getting them pregnant quickly so they can provide a baby for the family. After giving birth, some are allowed to escape—but forced to leave their children behind…

    China, India, and other affected countries need to act urgently to mitigate the effects of the woman shortage. They should carefully examine the consequences of the woman shortage, including links to trafficking and other forms of violence against women. More importantly, they need to do much more to tackle the fundamental cause of the demographic imbalance—gender discrimination and the distaste for daughters that it breeds.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/02/china-population-control-two-child-policy
    • Jenny - How to get there? 12.1

      22 April 2019 at 11:14 am

      Tragic

      NZ is where these poor lonely buggers need to come.

      We have a skill shortage and a man drought. And it would represent some sort of redemption for our previous racist immigration policy, that once compulsorily disallowed Chinese women immigrants to come here to join their menfolk. The racist colonial administrators of the time, influenced by ideas of eugenics and white superiority believed that somehow too many Asian immigrants would be a threat to their White New Zealand policy.

      Weirdly these racists never imagined that a white women would ever marry a Chinese man. Which is what happened.

      Today Lee is one of the most common surnames in the New Zealand phone book.

      People will be people, no matter how much authorities might try to divide them up by ethnicity, or colour, or origin.

      https://www.worldofbuzz.com/new-zealand-faces-man-shortage-women-outnumber-men-78000/

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/101928723/stats-check-is-migration-helping-to-break-new-zealands-man-drought
      • greywarshark 12.1.1

        22 April 2019 at 11:52 am

        Policies for, about and by humans. Usually quoted when talking about democracies. This would mean that we would be looking how to incorporate those in the world already into a cohesive culture that has some place and task that has input of some kind. We know we are 'overstocked' by humans, the Chinese need to make intelligent plans along with their numerous males to enable them to have different but good lives. It may mean setting up a changed moral and social code, but that one would give everyone within the group respect and rights.

        I have been reading Ellis Peters and her Cadfael series around this monk and her imagined life for him but within the known history of the brotherhood he belongs to – Benedictine I think. It may be that men may choose to forego being fathers, perhaps experience their sexual expression but then choose to live within a masculine community with standards. Some who needed sex, could live separately as lay brothers! Some might get married but still serve the church wholeheartedly. Same with women, it could be better to be in a cohesive group, with a home, security, a living, a trade. I am not talking about man-haters, but celibate women, perhaps after some sexual experience to enable understanding. And if they could not settle in that situation, they could become lay sisters.

        We need a new way of doing things. Time and changes press us to reorganise our society, before technology, capitalism and the hegemony of neoliberal economics take us over fully. I think the Connectivity with 5G sounds like the tipping point.

        Are people realising that democracies are fading – they certainly are in most countries – and that we need to aim and work, for something better? Because that will require work – the sort that we put in here, reporting and pondering and discussing and attempting understanding with thoughtful, far-seeing action. It's almost Mission Impossible – and many people will not care to take it on. But that opens up to another danger; that obsessive purists, utopians, perfectionist authoritarians will rise to the top like sour cream and demand a level of excellence that enables us to see off technology and robots. But that is ignoring our reality as humans and turning us into robot-like creatures when being people is what we should be about, and each one expressing his or her own talents and building a clever and kind society. If not we will go off on another tragic path.
13. greywarshark 13

    22 April 2019 at 11:03 am

    Organic farming from BBC Witness History.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csywzg

    How Organic Farming Started audio. 8 mins
14. greywarshark 14

    22 April 2019 at 6:25 pm

    Hi moderator I haven't got anything still stuck in there have I?
15. greywarshark 15

    26 April 2019 at 9:34 am

    Copied from Open Mike 4/25/2019

    Pat 26

    25 April 2019 at 10:45 pm

    "Our choice comes down to this. Do we stop life to allow capitalism to continue, or stop capitalism to allow life to continue?"

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/capitalism-economic-system-survival-earth

    One of Monbiot's better musings
16. greywarshark 16

    26 April 2019 at 11:21 am

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-vast-expanse-rainforest-lost-in-2018

    The forests store huge amounts of carbon and are teeming with wildlife, making their protection critical to stopping runaway climate change and halting a sixth mass extinction. But deforestation is still on an upward trend, the researchers said. Although 2018 losses were lower than in 2016 and 2017, when dry conditions led to large fires, last year was the next worst since 2002, when such records began.

    Clearcutting of primary forest by loggers and cattle ranchers in Brazil dominated the destruction, including invasions into indigenous lands where uncontacted tribes live. Losses were also high in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Indonesia. Indonesia is the only major country where government protections appear to be significantly reducing the losses.

    

    Africa cocoa industry failing on deforestation pledge – campaigners

    Read more

    Ghana and Ivory Coast recorded the biggest percentage rises in rainforest destruction, driven by gold mining and cocoa farming.

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