All the Waiheke papers are featuring articles this week, on the partnership between Right House and Transition Waiheke, and urging people to fill in their Energy survey forms.
I am told the New Zealand Herald will be publishing a similar story in the Green pages on Monday.
Transition Nelson got front page coverage there this week, with a photo of Ted and his electric assist bike, which I did this story on him a while ago now.
From stuff.co.nz: “In April the Nelson Environment Centre received $152,000 from the Environment Ministry to support and develop Transition Nelson.
The Nelson group will be formally launched in September, but at its first public meeting, people had expressed an interest in food production.
Mr Howard said its meeting next Tuesday evening, therefore, would focus on opportunities to localise food again and produce it more sustainably.
The meeting would be of interest to people concerned about where their food came from, or those wanting to see more local food production.”
And back on Waiheke: Sue Kedgley from the Green Party came over last night to speak about food security in the face of global challenges, under the title: “Food prices going up and Quality going down.”
In her first sentence she referred to Transition Towns and after the talk, kept coming back to this community led model, over and over again.
I was deeply moved by this wonderful oratory and all it contained. In his valedictory speech to the NZ parliament Nandor left us with a prophetic message, and in no uncertain terms. I believe that in times to come we will look at his farewell speech as insightful and inspirational. I was delighted to hear Transition Towns mentioned as one of several grass roots community-led intiatives he honoured when talking about where the change is coming from.
Here is the full speech on video.
One of the first things Nandor Tanczos did when he entered Parliament was buy a watch. The last thing he did before leaving was to take it off, place it on his desk - and smash it to pieces with a mallet.
Because when I look at the state of our rivers, our atmosphere and our people, I don’t need a watch to tell me what time it is,” the departing Green MP shouted, as the handcuff that had chained him to the system shattered across the chamber.
A friend, who I value as an aware and compassionate soul, sent me this article from www.sentienttimes.com
I’ve finally figured it out. I am not overwhelmed, de-pressed, confused, or bewildered by our world gone mad. I’m ready. I’m past ready.
I just want to go for it.
Why can’t we have a nation—why can’t we have a world we’re proud of? Why can’t we stop wringing our hands over poverty, hunger, species decimation, genocide, and death from curable disease that we know is all needless? The truth is there is no reason we can’t.
They say—whoever the “they” are—that as we age, we mellow.
I don’t think so. I’m getting less and less patient.
Why? Because I realize that humanity has no excuses anymore. In the span of my own lifetime, both historical evidence and breakthroughs in knowledge have wiped out all our excuses. We know that we know how to end this needless suffering, and we have all the resources to do it. From sociology and anthropology to economics, from education and ecology to systems analysis … the evidence is in. We know what works.
Actually it’s not the first public orchard on Waiheke, but it is the probably the first which has been designed to have such a wide range of fruit and nut trees planted. This fun 2 minute clip (a big thanks to www.waiheke.tv) shows the energy behind the Fabulous Fruit Tree initiative, which has the vision for Waiheke becoming the Fruit Bowl of the Hauraki Gulf, and has set a target of 20,000 fruit and nut trees planted on public and private land over the next 10 years.
Hear volunteers singing as they lay down cardboard and mulch to suppress the aggressive Kikuyu grass on the property (the old Surfdale Post Office). Interviews are snappy and to the point, and the last one is with Roberto Perez, taken while he was visiting Waiheke in March.
Planting of 35 species of trees will begin at the beginning of August.
I was impressed when I first came across Chris Jordan’s art works showing us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics. In this video Chris offers some insights into why he did this and what he hoped to achieve, as well as sharing some more of his amazing and mind expanding art.
I wonder how Chris might offer a visual representation of the amount of oil we consume each day? I understand that 84 million barrels is the equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool full every 12 seconds (or 5 polls full every minute)!
The Transition Network Aotearoa is growing so fast I need an assistant(1). With the recent published articles in Sunday Star Times and Good magazine, and with the forthcoming TV exposure on Close Up, I can only see the need increasing.
I would like to work with someone who can commit to building up to consistently offering 20 hours a week, after two to three weeks in the role. I want to pay for this service with donated funds. Donated funds have totalled approximately $10,000(2) since I began this work in October last year, and they have slowed down the outflow from my personal savings. However, I expect that significant funds will soon be forthcoming. So to be clear, this is an unpaid role until funds are forthcoming.
I need to work with someone who is passionate about the Transition model and its place in supporting and enabling a relatively smooth transition from oil dependency to local resilience.
Here is a quick outline of the work I would like help with…
It was full, with three kids in the back and Kim and I in front. It used a tank full of petrol to get to Rotorua* and back and was probably a reasonably economic use of resources all things considered.
The best part of the trip for me was The Shweeb - a cycle driven monorail type transport system.
It was set up by the inventor and in the Agrodome fun park just out of Rotorua, but when I saw it, I saw city transport. In fact that was the vision of the inventor who conceived of this while living in Tokyo.
I had a go, of course, and beat my opponent, whose preferred form of transport is a car. I like to cycle when I go any distance on the island, but I did go all out, and when I got out of the pod after three laps I was a little shakey on my pins.
It was good to see this, as I can imagine something like this being set up as a viable means of transport across city environments, if we don’t run out of time to set it up.
* Rotorua is sometimes referred to as Roto-Vegas because of its focus on tourism and all the bright lights.
Peasants are detested by both communists and capitalists - but when it comes to productivity a small farm is unbeatable
George Monbiot - The Guardian
Tuesday, June 10 2008
I suggest you sit down before you read this. Robert Mugabe is right. At last week’s global food summit he was the only leader to speak of “the importance of land in agricultural production and food security”. Countries should follow Zimbabwe’s lead, he said, in democratising ownership.
Of course the old bastard has done just the opposite. He has evicted his opponents and given land to his supporters. He has failed to support the new settlements with credit or expertise, with the result that farming in Zimbabwe has collapsed. The country was in desperate need of land reform when Mugabe became president. It remains in desperate need of land reform today.
But he is right in theory. Though the rich world’s governments won’t hear it, the issue of whether or not the world will be fed is partly a function of ownership. This reflects an unexpected discovery. It was first made in 1962 by the Nobel economist Amartya Sen, and has since been confirmed by dozens of studies. There is an inverse relationship between the size of farms and the amount of crops they produce per hectare. The smaller they are, the greater the yield. Continue Reading »
May 13, 2008—Boulder County Going Local has been named the first official Transition Initiative in the U.S., selected to begin anchoring the Transition movement in this country. Boulder County Going Local has been named the first Transition Initiative in North America, only the 5th outside the U.K., and the 53rd in the world.
View a special video message to Boulder from the co-founder of the Transition Network, Ben Brangwyn.
Here’s a small article my partner found in the “Good” magazine. This screams of gross misuse of public funds. If the net result of the expenditure of $4.6 million is 210 rubbish bins (is anyone doing the maths - that’s $21,900 per bin), then I don’t care how sweet the logo is, I would like to know who approved this, and whether they still have their job?
Recycling with Love
Recycling bins will soon appear in more tourist centers around the country, in part 2 of the governments $4.6 million dollar Recycling in Public Places Initiative.
This second round of funding will install 210 bins branded-”Love NZ - recycle with care” in public spaces by June 2009. The bin will give people a chance to get rid of their recyclable rubbish in a responsible way while they are out and about. New Zealand’s lack of good public waste disposal facilities is one of the most common criticisms received in tourism industry survey of visitor experiences.
Environment Minister Trevor Mallard says he hopes the Love NZ recycling bins will eventually be as common as red New Zealand post boxes. The initiative aims to have 600 “Love NZ” bins in place by 2010. First to receive bins late last year were Kaikoura, Christchurch, the Far North and central Wellington. Businesses can also adapt the “Love NZ ” brand for their recycling facilities.
All the Waiheke papers are featuring articles this week, on the partnership between Right House and Transition Waiheke, and urging people to fill in their Energy survey forms.
Mr Howard said its meeting next Tuesday evening, therefore, would focus on opportunities to localise food again and produce it more sustainably.
One of the first things Nandor Tanczos did when he entered Parliament was buy a watch. The last thing he did before leaving was to take it off, place it on his desk - and smash it to pieces with a mallet.
They say—whoever the “they” are—that as we age, we mellow.
The 
The best part of the trip for me was 
George Monbiot - The Guardian
I have a friend who just moved back there, so was interested to see this, and to see just how much activity there is.
