A wander through the wilderness with Amy McComb as we take in the grandeur of nature and a delightful journey through the garden of knowledge.
The uniqueness of the many native trees in NZ allows for a very interesting odyssey for an empath, as trees embed their healing qualities in their being and this can be picked up by those who have an affinity with the plant world.
Married to this is having the proficiency of an honours, botanical science degree, that gives a sense of both what is going on and what is needed.
Maori saw trees as taonga and also that in ancient times trees were in many ways affiliated to god or goddess energy, that they were revered for the healing qualities that reside in them.
Note, that plants are drawn to certain areas and that they can teach us a lot about living together. Kauri don't like to be planted alone, away by themselves, because they will sulk however when grown in a grove, thrive together. Kaihikatea trees tend to grow in circular areas and grow in swampy or wet places as their roots like a damp environment.
The Kogi, descendants of the vast Tairona civilisation, and indigenous to Columbia, are perhaps the last pre-Columbian civilisation still living with their ancient culture in tact. For over 500 years they have been living high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, hidden away from the outside world.
The Kogi world centres around the profound understanding and direct perception of ‘Aluna,’ the creative spiritual dimension of The Great Mother. Descriptions of Aluna suggest it is akin to the Australian Aboriginal dream-time. The Kogi know the Earth to be a living being, arising from Aluna, and that all phenomena on Earth originate from this spiritual dimension.
They maintain that our actions of exploitation, devastation, and plundering for resources, and—more importantly—the misuse and abuse of our human energy is weakening the spiritual organisation of the Earth. They see that this is leading humanity and the planet away from the Original Intention of The Great Mother… toward our eventual destruction. They are aware this is not the first time there has imbalance and destruction of this kind, although it is perhaps the first occurrence on such a global scale.
Jonathan has spent much of his life extensively exploring the inner and outer worlds looking for answers and solutions to how we can live in accordance with Nature, physically and spiritually—holistically. What he found was a common thread of ancient wisdom weaving through all original traditions, cultures, and religions.
Steffan Browning, Green Party Member of Parliament. Spokesperson on:
Organics, GMOs, Fisheries, Agriculture, Bio-security, Customs, Forestry, Security and Intelligence. Steffan has been a member of the select committee on the Food Bill and has been instrumental in promoting changes to the original document.
A new law, replacing the Food Act 1981, was passed in Parliament on May 27th 2014. The bill introduces substantial reforms to the regulatory regime for the safety and suitability of food. This bill has been ten years in the making and has been sent to the select committee twice. It has just passed its third reading in the house and is to become law.
This bill is about food that is for consumption. It sets a new risk based bureaucratic structure that growers and producers will have to face but as consumers that may be a plus for us. Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye says it will reduce compliance costs. There will be exemptions for small growers. How much bureaucracy should a small grower have to comply with however?
Laws governing the selling of seeds for growing have been changed and are no longer included in the bill. The bill is strictly about the safety of food that we are going to eat.
Steffan Browning and Labour’s Damien O’Connor have both put up amendments to the bill on Country of Origin labelling but the government voted these down. The Green Party has still got Country of Origin labelling in the parliamentary ballot, as that now seems the only way to get the issue addressed.In January 2012, when Steffan was supposed to be on holiday, many people flooded him with letters concerned about this bill. One concern was, where did genetic engineering fit in all of this. After all, it is a food safety issue, since genetically engineered foods are not safe.
If you doubt that statement is correct watch the movie that Steffan recommends,http://vimeo.com/68422959 'Genetic Roulette’.
One concern was that genetic engineering had been removed from the draft bill. Steffan worked with the then food safety minister Kate Wilkinson, and more recently with minister Nikki Kaye and has managed to include wording says that genetically engineered foods MAY be considered a food issue. This means that GE can be included under the umbrella of this food safety regulation, which would ultimately be beneficial, one would hope. The words are in the bill but the actions of this government are not supporting it.
Minister Nikki Kaye has allowed into New Zealand a new Soyabean that has been genetically altered to make it tolerant to the herbicides glufosinate ammonium and 2,4-D (an ingredient in agent orange) as well as roundup. This will undoubtedly create a health issue in the not so distant future. While each of the herbicides are not shown by industry’s own science to cause problems in the human body, there have been no tests on how all three work together. Independent science has shown some very concerning effects from herbicide resistant GE soy.
This latest soy has not been approved by the FDA in the United States yet, which is saying something! Currently in New Zealand no GE food is grown but Steffan talks about the importing of GE food into this country and how we are unknowingly eating it, as our labelling laws have not been monitored or enforced since 2003. He explains why you are probably eating GE in your dairy and meat products via the animals’ food, that may include GE soy, cotton seed and canola.
One of the concerns in this country is the lack of independent, not industry based, science. It appears that even our regulatory body FSANZ has some conflicts of interest amongst its advisors, so how do we ensure we actually are eating safe food?
Steffan says the whole system needs an overhaul. If FSANZ – Food Safety Australia New Zealand – can’t do better than this then we need to bring control back into this country, again.
Steffan is a tireless worker for a variety of food issues and is a major protector in Parliament of the integrity of our food. He is also quick to acknowledge the work of Claire Bleakley, Jon Carapiet, Suzie Lees, and others from http://www.gefree.org.nz GE Free NZ.
This programme was sponsored by The Awareness Party.
http://www.theawarenessparty.com
The saying that ‘we are spiritual beings having an earth experience’ is resonating with more and more people as this timely clarion call inspires us to action. And as we awaken to the realisation that our society is coming up against limits to our outmoded thinking, belief systems and thresholds - to what is unbridled growth, we are starting to reflect on the inevitable consequences of ‘business as usual.’
‘When the joy of compassionate service is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing economic, social, and political institutions, a radical and potentially all-transforming holy force is born.’
This coming from the quintessential sacred activist, Andrew Harvey a global transition leader who invokes the sacred in every thought, deed and action in what is our collective … ever expanding cosmology.
If there was ever a time to fulfill our hearts calling for a better world, it has to be now.
From Mahatma Gandhi to Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King, Jr., we have over the last century witnessed beings stand up to the status quo and against the odds, courageously show(ed) that their passion to represent the repressed and downtrodden continued, unabated.
Here in our country of Aotearoa we too have a growing number of people, who surrendering to a greater calling than service to self, devote their lives to doing what they feel, and intuitively know is right, to stand firm in the face of adversity as well as recognising the growing general consensus that things are definitely not sustainable.
Where once virtues, values and ethics were more deeply embedded in our community and that they were intrinsic to what we thought and felt society should embrace, yet we are also continuing to witness on a daily basis a greater void in the world. This emptiness is in many ways being foisted upon us from the global corporate juggernaut that has overreached itself and now, ‘sacred activists’ are riding the pendulum that’s finally starting to swing life back towards balance and that of community.
Todays new calling is for positive change, for deep dialogue, to open to new ideas, innovation and expanding the parameters of new paradigm thinking. At the same time bringing with it a warm hearted countenance, that unifies the spirit and connects with the common aspirations of so many people who have been affected, but have been struggling and unable to truly contribute to the world.
Thus, we are all being called to participate in this upwelling of transformation, in both the outer world and our inner realms especially our celebrating of our reverence for life.
So the question that now lends itself to your continuing curiosity, are you a sacred activist? Are you a metaphysical change agent? Do you know anyone who is? And, do you aspire to ignite your own inner wisdom and participate?
If this ideal feels compelling to you:
Join Diane Marama Winder and Michael Fleck
As we share and express what has been bubbling into our consciousness as that of the ‘sacred activist.’
*****
Diane Marama Winder is an inter-spiritual guide, international teacher and intuitive messenger. She is unique among New Zealand's visionary writers and speakers. Her transformational and heart-opening work on evolutionary living and personal and planetary healing bridges many worlds - from corporate leaders to Tibetan Monks, health care to UN groups, youth and families to the unseen realm. An ordained interfaith minister and biologist, Diane is CoFounder and Spiritual Director of the Sephira Institute and the Winder Foundation with its B-Cool Program for Boys 'at promise.' Born in America, she has lived in Auckland for 15 years.
Contact: marama [at] aroha.net
Michael is an Auckland eco-activist and event designer, specialising in guiding people on sacred journeys throughout New Zealand and the Pacific. He is the co-founder of Ecoversity and the Good Company Pacific resource network.
Contact: michael [at] aroha.net
Brendan is a courageous advocate for growing of healthy food and the World Rural Forum have asked him to participate in what is a world civil societies initiative to the UN's International Year of Family Farming.
70% OF THE WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION IS PROVIDED BY FAMILY FARMERS
Of that 70%
50% comes from arable, cropping and gardening
12.5% come from hunting and gathering
7.5% is produced by small urban farmers
The other 30% of food production comes from highly mechanised Western farming.
25% OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION IS COMPOSED OF WOMEN FARMERS, which comes to about 1,600 million women. These women are usually running the household, bringing up the children, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the sick and or aged parents as well. (Spare a caring thought for them).
So the International Year of Family Farming is not about the family farm or farming, and it is more than just producing food and products. It covers, contracts, teachers, safety, health workers, education, land use, including farm labour, fisheries, forestry incorporating the whole of the global rural regions.
Brendon being the Oceanic representative and coordinator on a National level, gives a broad overview of what the challenges are; he has a team of 4 very qualified people here in NZ to support this initiative.
One of the main objectives is to explore here in NZ are:
Of these 5, three are to be focussed on.
At present NZ has no rural strategy especially for rural telecommunications connectivity.
None addressing debt and this is a large overhead for many farmers and gardeners.
None of the key issues addressing ‘identity’ are being discussed at ANY level.
Thus this initiative has created 'this Forum' for these discussions to be heard and addressed.
In this interview:
The word organics is broached to which Brendan replies, that when we drop the word organics and have the conversation under more generic terms everyone wants to talk about healthy food. Because from growing to marketing we are all interconnected.
What is the 'International Year of Family Farming' in 2014 and what is family?
How do we build a rural strategy for NZ and be lead by civil society and not going to the government for money.
How do we have conversations in rural NZ about GE, for example and water quality and soil degradation?
In the rural sector family farms versus corporate farms are a growing tension Corporate farms would not employ the local accountant or the local engineer or the local lawyer and other localised trades people.
So rural communities are suffering and how do we address this?
Forestry - a lot of deaths by accident - loss of family, father, and compensation, welfare etc - more care more training, more up skilling
Farming is about having a deep connection to the land and the farmers feet are also in the ground with an intimacy of soil fertility, grasses, trees, bird life, smells and the change of the seasons. However, you lose intimacy when your operation becomes too big ... where ... you can't or don’t walk your land as it is already digitally mapped, on GPS. It is also very much about finding that sweet spot on your land, and as a metaphor it’s around families and kids at play and immersing themselves in natures sounds, colours and fragrances, but also a lot of these days families are under stress. Like availability of finding partners for marriage and start a family. Where once there were community dances, tennis clubs, badminton and table tennis at the local hall. Yes, there maybe the rugby club, and that's the convergence point of a local area for anyone, not even rugby supporters.
Farms are not always about profitability and about production. It's also a good time and have friendships experiencing producing high quality products, being innovative, working with animals, machines, and sorting out problems, that makes rural living exciting. Kids can learn much, also to be gentle yet strong - nurturing in a growing way, not in a hunting, killing exterminating way, but feeling, being connected and honouring of place. This especially with children is becoming more rare. Note that there is also death on farms, that animals do die, and this has to be taken in stride as well.
Brendan intimates that this whole initiative could lead to transformational change in farming and land practice, if it gets the needed support / buy in.
Hear that in a private capacity Brendan's team come in alongside small to medium size NZ business get them fit and strong so that when match fit, they are able to go into the world and thrive internationally.
From production to market lead, now farming is becoming relationship lead i.e people wanting to connect with the farmer/gardener to learn about their food that is being sold into the city.
Putting ones soul into the land, blood and sweat (and tears) creates and enhances the land when we understand the energetics of building up soil fertility faster to a better quality etc using biological and ecological process like enhancing water standards and landscapes plus treescapes. It’s not really about technology, it's about techniques as well as the synergy of working with people all the way to distribution, marketing and overseas export.
Connection to quality is becoming relationship based. Especially with labelling of country of origin now being initiated in NZ. Called connection by biological and ecological consciousness.
Quality of care equals enduring relationships
Conscious connection, is growing every year and in this field of quality food it could be 7% per year.
Overseas they are now wanting to know about carbon neutrality, food miles, fairness of trade - pesticide residue, organic or not and wanting tests done again and .. again questioning plastic in foods, coverings and processes of foods. Being certified organic picks up a premium return. Organics means individual health, environmental health, uncontaminated soil, clean streams, no air born contamination, a better ecology from the local to the global this is what translates into health, that benefits the whole.
Learn also about how organics is being regulated in NZ and covers the fact that NZ's state of the environment has never been worse ... basically it means that 'we' collectively are not on the winning team and the reason is poor communication and lack of ... that their needs to be change in our mindset and that the languaging of ecological and environmental considerations be invoked in our daily vernacular.
Be it biological or ecological producer what ever the name .... overseas now the word organic and biological are synonymous and perceptive ears of discerning buyers are listening out for how we in NZ speak to our connection in the way we go about our farming practices.
Brendan also stresses that we be thankful when we eat food, be mindful of its growth into what it is … involve ourselves do gardening and grow some food.
It is actual gardeners not farmers that feed the world so be part of this shift in awareness.
And, be courageous and be daring ... of course you can ...if the seed is ripe ... plant more seeds.
And much, much more.
Conscious connection, conscious eating, conscious environment.
www.familyfarmingcampaign.net
www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/028/mg367e.pdf
Transnational Corporations are moving in to NZ where once they were only multi national corporations. The percentage of incursion into NZ is virtually the highest of any developed country on earth. They are dominating our country more and more as the laws of NZ are very laissez-faire and liberal, buying into established businesses that NZers have built and also buying up our land and housing as well. Generally it is open slather with very few exceptions.
THe TPPA is a wolf in sheeps clothing and when you peruse: http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/ you will get the picture. Big Time.
Free trade agreements are actual investment agreements to provide the means for trans national corporations to acquire more power, profit, control and riches and wealth under the guise of Free Trade ... NZ is being recolonised by Corporations.
In NZ the banks are creaming it. Not one is suffering at present ANZ, with record profits same for Westpac.
Subjects Covered:
Corporate Welfare here in NZ, namely Rio Tinto (the old Comalco) easily obtaining a $30 million dollar subsidy from the National Govt, by saying they will not close their smelter until 2017. Yet, they have a secret electric power deal that is far below the current rate for ordinary householders and ... the power that they take daily is equivalent to all the electrical power that is consumed by the city of Auckland. And they have been doing this for 50 years with every single government that has got into power. Note with no smelter, NZ would have huge amounts of excess power ...
Other situations where the NZ government gave our hard earned tax dollars as enticements to, were, Skycity, Chorus, Fox Studious, Warner Bros etc.
Note, Skycity's offer to build a National Convention Center as long as the Govt gives them umpteen poker machines to be unleashed on the public. And that this deal is LOCKED in for 35 years. That no Govt can ever reverse it no matter which Government gains power.
Chorus who is rolling out the ultra fast broad band cable across the country was told by the NZ Government Commerce Commission that they have been overcharging all customers by $10 per month and that they had to repay their customers so instead, they cried that it would send them broke, so the government came in and helped them out.
These are three examples of political interference and corporate welfare dictating how our elected Parliamentary servants represent, we the NZ citizens.
Then there is corporate tax avoidance, last year it was announced a day before Xmas eve, that the NZ IRD, Inland Revenue Dept reached an 'out of court settlement' of $2.2 billion dollars (around 80% of the total amount) with the 4 top Australian owned banks as they had previously dodged paying tax. This being the biggest tax avoidance case in NZ history. This was very hush hush, when in fact they all should have been taken to the highest court of the land. With an 'out of court settlement'
they avoided penalty taxes and court costs ... very cunning.
CAFCA also runs the Roger Awards for the Worst Transnational Corporation operating in NZ. The Roger award named after 'you know who' and is also represented by the pirate flag of the skull and cross bones called the unjolly Roger. The banks are always in the finals, especially the ANZ. This year the Award was won by Rio Tinto, with Sky City 2nd and 3rd being Chorus. All 3 were judged as interfering with the Government and receiving backhanded - handouts.
Note that in January 2014 in the Business Day column of the Christchurch Press it was stated that Facebook, Google and Apple made an estimated $750 million dollars in NZ in the last tax year but only paid less than $4 million in tax. That works out as a tax rate of 0.4% yet the NZ company tax is 28%, how did they get around this? NZ loses and CEO's and Shareholders of these transnationals win!
And they are not paying their taxes in the USA either, using offshore tax havens ...
In England the Tax Justice Network are looking at these deals - 'The price of offshore'. http://www.taxjustice.net
Then there is the TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the loss of NZ's sovereignty as well as a plethora of circumstances that will effect our country across the board. See www.itsourfuture.org.nz
TPPA is also means to 'contain' China from the US perspective. As the World Bank has just in the last week stated that China will overtake the USA as the worlds largest economy this year, and this is the first time that this has happened since 1872 when Britain was surpassed by the USA. Previous predictions were thought to be 2019 for China to make this break-through.
Note, if PHARMAC here in NZ is abolished it will mean huge costs for drugs in this country. PHARMAC drugs here cost 1/3 of US costs and 1/2 Australian costs.
Then we have the Security Apparatus, that composes 5 of the main countries of the 5 Eyes Echelon Communication Network. USA, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ.
ABC http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/
The NZ GCSB is increasingly doing the service as the subordinate and being even servile to the corporate agenda. In March 2013 the NZ Business Review stated that 'our spies principle mission used to be the defence of the realm, todays GCSB is about the protection of Corporate property and interests.'
GCSB and the Dot com saga, tells the NZ community that there is much murk behind the scenes ...
You can write to the director of the NZ SIS, Security Intelligence, Box 900 in Wellington and ask them if they have a file on you and ask for a copy of your file ...
Other points of interest in this information packed interview:
That the US now has access to all of NZ's tax records - the Law has been passed in Parliament ... passed in the last month or so .... who of us slept though this one?
That there is a direct telephone line from the US State Department to Treasury in Wellington.
That Wikileaks let out information that Americans wanted to allow NZ's spys to be connected directly to the Department of Homeland Security in the USA , however the NZ director of the SIS refused to approve it - so he was pushed out until someone more 'proactive' was employed.
Also, in those Wikileaks documents there was evidence that the US embassy was given all hours access by being given actual swipe cards to get into the NZ buildings of Foreign Affairs and NZ Defence HQ in Wellington so that they could come in day or night and have access to certain people and records and that sort of ... stuff.
Note that the NZ legal definition of a foreign company is anything more than 24.9 % yet our PM in saying we are only going to sell off 49% of Meridian and Mighty river power and Genesis, this is actually double the legal definition of a foreign company.
*******
I encourage all listeners this morning to open up your web browser to www.cafca.org.nz and peruse this site, then tell your friends and neighbours that we are losing our country.
Murray has for 45 years, been at the forefront of educating the NZ public telling them that every week large slices of New Zealand's farms and city and suburban properties are being sold off to over seas entities. And much, much more.
*********
In 2012, the Overseas Investment Office approved the sale of 43,080 hectares of freehold rural land and 8,554 hectares of leases and other interests in land to foreigners. About 10,000 hectares of the freehold land and almost all the leases and other interests in land were from one foreign investor to another. In the decade 2003 to 2012, the average was 133,942 hectares of freehold and 60,435 hectares of leases and other interests in land approved for sale.
Statistics on sales of land to overseas interests are poorly recorded and incomplete. Our best estimate is that in 2011 at least 8.7 percent of New Zealand farmland including forestry, or 1.3 million hectares, is foreign-owned or controlled and it could have reached 10 percent.
(Overseas Investment Commission and Overseas Investment Office. "Overseas Ownership Of Land: Far Greater Than The 1% The PM Claims", by Bill Rosenberg)
People's Rights Before Corporate Profit
Public Service Not Private Profit
An Independent Foreign Policy
No Unjust Secret Treaties
These topics include
* transnational corporations' tax avoidance
* corporate welfare
* asset sales - NZ Farmland
* spying abuses by the GCSB/NSA
* the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)
* Five Eyes - Waihopai
* plus plenty more
Murray Will be speaking in Auckland
Friday May 9th at:
Pacific Media Centre
Sir Paul Reeves Building
Auckland University of Technology
4.00 p.m.
Local Contact: David Robie 021 112-2079
Full Itinerary here: http://2014cafcatour.blogspot.co.nz/p/blog-page.html
Websites of interest:
http://www.celticnz.co.nz/transport/Time_Line.htm
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/putting_big_brother_in _the_drivers_seat_v2v_transmitters_black_boxes_d
Interviewed by John Coombs - Dr Wayne McCarthy has been in practice for 25 years working as a Naturopath, including primary care work in USA. Dr Wayne, a medical school graduate from Oregon USA, has used this training to develop what he believes is the most simple and cost effective health care options available.
He returned to NZ in 2005 to help get Ozone therapy established in NZ.
Dr Wayne has worked tirelessly since to promote Ozone Therapy building a practice to help thousands of people recover from a wide range of health challenges with many of them moving towards optimal health and vitality.
Ozone has proven effective for most health conditions as it helps fully oxygenate the body improving the immune system to a level where naturally occurring healing and vitality readily occur.
Prolotherapy another key aspect of Wayne’s portfolio fills an important gap between physiotherapy and surgery strengthening ligaments, tendons and cartilage, restoring joints and enabling normal function and mobility.
It’s especially good for old knee and back injuries as well as restoring shoulder strength and mobility. It’s potentially a permanent cost effective solution for sporting injuries.
Dr Wayne has also trained in osteopathy and psychology giving him an holistic portfolio of skills for dealing with most health challenges, from simple infections through to difficult chronic conditions.
To book to see Dr Wayne or for more information go to http://globalhealthclinics.co.nz/practitioners/wayne-mccarthy-ozone/ or call 09 4880208 Monday to Friday and the reception team will help you.
Dr Wayne is located in Takapuna on Wednesday and Thursday and Whangarei during other times in the week.
Motivated by what she saw around her on her island Kaua’i, Andrea Brower embarked on a career of social and environmental justice.
The largest pesticide companies in the world use Kaua’i and other islands in Hawaii to experiment with genetically engineered crops. Crops are created to either be herbicide resistant, or to create their own resistance.
Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Bayer, BASF and Syngenta all operate their research and development programmes there. Virtually every type of GM seed variety passes through Hawaii and is tested in open air field trials for their new technologies. This involves very high use of pesticides and herbicides. 15,000 acres of land on Kaua’i are used for this research.
Ecological and health concerns are growing as a result of this continual onslaught of chemical residue which blows onto communities on as many as three hundred days a year.
Last year Kaua'i passed a county law that would allow greater public disclosure of pesticide use, as well as modest no-spray protection zones around schools and other places where children live, learn and play. Now Dow, DuPont Pioneer and Syngenta have contested this and filed a law suit against Kaua’i.
Andrea began with a degree in environmental studies and feminism in California. Then she returned to Kaua’i to work with a non profit organization called Malama Kauai. Here she worked on issues of food, energy, economics and sustainability. Malama Kauai have community gardens and while there Andrea also looked at global systems, larger processes and structures that affected how they could operate even at this local level.
This drove Andrea to study further and she attended Sussex University in the UK where she did her masters in International Development and the Environment.
She is now working on her PHD at Auckland University’s sociology department where she is preparing a thesis on Social Movements that Change Food Systems.
Andrea is most concerned about the capital structure that incentivises profit making in scientific research around our food, and not for the public good. Now decades of research is finding genetically engineering highly unsuccessful so increasingly these companies are buying up conventional seeds . It now seems almost unable for even small community gardens to be free of these corporate giants who aim to control global markets.
Angela cites a book called Foodopoly . In Foodopoly the author, Wenona Hauter, pulls the curtain back from the little-understood but vital realm of agricultural policy, showing how it has been hijacked by lobbyists, driving out independent farmers and food processors in favour of the likes of another GE giant Cargill, and Tyson, Kraft and ConAgra. She demonstrates how the impacts ripple far and wide, from economic stagnation in rural communities at home, to famines overseas. In the end, Hauter argues that solving this crisis will require a complete structural shift—a change that is about politics, not just personal choice.
Andrea talks passionately about this and her own research into our food systems.
She is not convinced that the labeling of GE food is an answer, although important, as it just means good food for the elite market and is not an answer for those consumers who cannot afford good food.
She is keen to see policies and economic structures changed to stop a handful of global companies controlling the food market. Some of these structures that need rolling include trade agreements, national policies, and laws that allow banks to speculate on the price of food. Changes are required to subsidy structures so they can support local and co-operative initiatives.
Above all Andrea would like to see grassroots opposition to the corporatization of our food.
A vivacious and intelligent young lady, Andrea Brower is has much to contribute and I really recommend that you listen closely to what she has to say.
This programme was sponsored by The Awareness Party.
The highest polling Independent candidate in the previous 2011 NZ election, David stood for Parliament in Waitaki, the 2nd largest electorate in NZ and over a couple of months of electioneering, walked 1500 kilometres and put his flyers in every post box of the towns in this electorate.
One of a Solar Vision of the Era and of New Zealand.
There are many insights gathered when not part of the Party system.
David is perplexed by the lack of involvement by the average citizen in NZ - and that we need to take a stand and say enough is enough ... because we in the Western world live in a corporatocracy and the only power we really have outside the ballot box is the power to boycott. Corporations who do not have global goodwill as their vision, should be boycotted - but we have to be organised ...
To Initiate a discussion and then a action plan:
Bring forth the solar age here in NZ and with innovation and tax incentives we could lead the future. Note that Germany the leading country in solar energy, is closer to the North Pole than NZ is to the South Pole.
Solar collectors on every house roof, along with a small wind generator and compulsory insulation of all homes, thermo pane windows and walls with 6 inch (15 CM) insulation.
NZ has become a very expensive country that is now over regulated ... plus the need to build a functional union movement in this country once again, one that works more cooperatively with possible bonus issues and even shares being offered.
Also stop thinking BIG, and get back to local systems, simple and small scale individual solutions - community oriented initiatives. Where people are empowered to participate. Farmers Markets, cultural events, swap meets, localised workshops etc
Localised health, growing your own food organically and integrating more holistic health modalities into your lifestyle.
Overpopulation is our planet’s largest problem, as everything stems from that, pollution, hunger, control of and lack of resources etc. However, over population is not being broached by society as a whole, because economic growth and its current unsustainable model is dependent on a continuously expanding population base.
Look at extreme weather events .. this is amplifying and we need to start stratigizing solutions and actioning them. Insurance companies are realising that their losses are escalating due to increasing risks around floods, storms and hurricanes etc.
That Gaia, Mother Earth is subtly and not so subtly showing us that things are out of balance and the resulting extreme events are increasing.
If we could engender a mass awakening we could turn the planet around very quickly, but first we would have to turn off our TV sets and start re-engaging with each other at a localised level and build from there.
Why have we become separated from nature, why are we allowing destruction of both the fauna and flora of our planet? - Having been in the Alaskan wilderness and even meditated close up with grizzly bears in the boreal forests, David senses that we need to realise our interconnection with the web of life. Yet, people in high places are not speaking out for the biota and the biosphere as a whole. There are very few planetary champions supporting nature.
Where as 40 years ago when David lived with his family on their Mid Canterbury farm and before TV came here everyone sat around the table and dialogued and debated and discoursed with each other. This was about the topics of the day, and the things we either disagreed or agreed with. To even take the other side of the debate and argue from that side, as this was the entertainment of those days.
First, A coalition of left and right independents who are also unbiased, self supporting and insightful thinkers but agree to sign a contract saying that they will work for the greater good of the whole of NZ, the environment and other species and our future on behalf of our grand children.
For example, retain New Zealand's Nuclear Free status.
That we look to and plan towards ‘Seven Generations into the Future.’ That all independent politicians sign such an agreement as a basis for a 'unified position.'
Party politics have become, that once you join a political party, you abandon your principles to your party and not to the public good and the future of NZ, because your following your parties policies which may not necessarily the best interest of the NZ. e.g the natural resource grab that is happening at this moment.
Have spirited discussions that come into informed decisions, are often better than ones own individual ideas - that being an aim of an independent movement. Working and communicating within the pubic domain.
What sort of vision should a leader offer their people? How do they factor humanity into it?
How is it that we in so many ways are eroding and closing down the magnificence of this jewel of a planet, when with some conscious decisions, education and policies we could turn this into a verdant garden?
Davids encounter when he was with singer Judy Collins, of talking with astronaut Neil Armstrong about his perceptions of life, when viewing the earth in the depths of space ... something very special.
Web search - the great american bubble machine that was in the Rolling Stone magazine,
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
No one has sued the journalist for defamation after fingering many of the money men, because his facts were correct.
This is about how Goldman Sachs has engineered the recent global economic collapse and that they have been donkey deep in every collapse since the Great Depression. But, more so they have infiltrated every Western government and that our Prime Minster has been able to enable ’them’ to sell our NZ state assets and that he is implicitly implicated at the highest levels by believing in the Neo Liberal Agenda.
This entails corporations taking over via unbridled capitalism with no Governmental regulations and causing the destruction of the common wheel, the natural resources of our environment, the rights of citizens to have secure futures, the rights of Unions to be involved in the mix (as they are in Germany.)
See TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement as a means to this corporate end.
http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz
Present day neo liberalism is Not serving the common person, the community, the environment and our planet and our children’s collective future ...
This interview covers many topics:
About how a Prime Minister should lead, and David mentions true blue Jim Bolger ex NZ National Party leader and NZ Prime Minister and his assessment of present day neo liberal capitalism in the USA as 'printing money and hoping!'
David once sat alongside Milton Friedman in first class and intensely discussed the failure of present day economics and it is in David’s opinion that the greatest downside of todays economic system is the slavery that has come about from the debt economy. That people who have mortgages are too afraid to stand up and be counted unless they may lose their jobs, and not get another and very possibly lose their house as a result.
A mass mobilisation is needed like the ‘D Day mobilisation’ to educate ourselves on the dire consequences of leaving our common future to the 'political industrial extractive process' that is debasing our environment at a horrific pace.
Where all nations, all governments, all peoples and all businesses come together to re awaken, we seed and replant, re-clean and re-heal our ecologic and environmental systems, that include where we house our communities.
All the major political parties environmental policies are in the dark ages - our wetlands, being crucibles of bird and aquatic life.
The urgency of planting of trees, especially natives from today onwards for the next 60 - 100 years we can stabilise,the soils, halt erosion and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, build up native bird and animal life.
Starting in the school curriculum, teaching of civic responsibilities and long range thinking.
Having a Lower and an Upper House in Parliament, needs discussing and debating.
E col o gy eco-logos oikos (Greek) translate as house - came well before ... eco no ME
Research: Soil loss and the decline of civilisation - essentially all great civilisations in history decline because they destroy the environment
http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0389e/t0389e02.htm
NZ’s fisheries and the many challenges around sustainability, our need to lock away many fisheries for a number of years to be able them to replenish and recover. For example Orange Roughy.
What we need is 'A Collective D Day Awakening' - a collective D Day Moment where we all Mobilise for the betterment of our local and global future.
And much more ...
Back in the 1940s New Zealanders were described as long, lean, ranging and resourceful. This was one of the reasons we had community and communication with each other, however over the years with the advent of electronics and changing education and household patterns, we have become more isolated and where subtle and not so subtle methods of divide and rule have become more prevalent.
To choose our politicians not because they are leaders or statesmen but because they may make more money than other people, does not translate to mean that we as a country should vote for such a person thinking this politician will also make more money for the country. This is a fallacy, they only go on to set themselves up to make more money for themselves further on.
In todays world, we as consumers are being targeted to consume as many material resources as can be paid for and when we purchase a bargain, usually as a ubiquitous, toxic plastic article it is very soon in a landfill somewhere and we end up poisoning our resources and our future.
The loss of ethics and the understanding of what it means is being lost in our runaway consumer society.
Tara states that engagement with one another was what made us a great nation and the illusion that we are all separate is more of an idea proposed by the people who want to divide us and rule.
We are a fortunate country in that we can recover the environment and have clean air, water and food chain etc. We are also, not so much in debt that if we do not sell off any more assets (the ones that make the revenue for us to pay off the debt) we may very well be able to create our way into a resilient and self reliant, sustainable country and society.
It is both your fault and my fault that we have the situation that is happening in this country - why? Because we did not make the effort. Over 1 million did not vote in the last election.
Do we want to be bothered? Or, do we want to become a people who think and decide to take strategic action at the polling booth? Look at the lives that have been lost over the centuries as ordinary people courageously strived under horrendous hardship to have a say in their community. To insult these pioneers, these suffragette’s by turning our backs on these hard fought rights to universal suffrage, is not an option, especially in our world of decreasing freedoms, ethics and values.
In NZ it is against the law not to register to vote. Whereas in Australia they have taken it a step further, and that it is against the law not to vote.
Look at a possible tax incentive to vote and those who don't vote pay more taxes?
This interview covers much subject matter:
Conservatism and what it means - to Conserve. Old people planting trees, knowing that they will never walk under the shade of them. Thinking forward as to what will we bequeath to our children and grand children’s future.
Learning from advanced Northern European methods.
Environment - In Sweden, recycling is so efficient that now Sweden has to import other peoples recycled (rubbish) items so as to keep their industries going. They have not turned their whole country into an economic model as we have done under the RMA the Resource Management Act. Recycling is part of the common vernacular through out Swedish business and Government.
Education - In Finland, though not on the same wages scale as doctors, teachers are honoured as professionals. The Finnish educational system caters for parental and grand parental input in their highly acclaimed educational system. Academically they have one of the highest success rates in the world.
The TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is a method to outflank NZ’s sovereignty. With regard to health, the TPPA has NZ in its sights the dismantling of PHARMAC and quite possibly the taking over of our hospitals by offshore corporations.
This also covers housing and overseas ownership of NZ, when we can not buy land in Fiji, China or Japan, why not instead lease this land and keep the ownership in this country?
GDP and the measure of how much growth we have where as like Dr. Ron Colman’s development of the Genuine Progress Index for Nova Scotia in Canada which includes the other side of the equation where car crashes, house fires, burglaries, storm damage and accident and sickness are factored into the whole economic understanding. And the books are balanced accordingly.
As a water scientist, Tara talks about:
The degradation of water, rives, lakes, selling off of NZ, that large corporate farms now may have only one house on them, where once many smaller farms built up the community as there were more homes and families. The advent of the larger and larger farms, are depopulating the community of families and this trend is escalating in NZ.
It’s our fault, as the government was designed to be a peoples process but now we are a people that are not engaged but instead disengaged. What can we do to reignite our interest in our own governance, be it at a local or a national level?
Our country is run as a business however, it can not be run solely as a business as there lies the fundamental difference that not everything has a monetary factor attached to it. Such as what about the knowledge banks of the elderly, and their input into community and society. The elderly have much wisdom and experience to offer. Lets validate them and bring them more into community decisions.
There is a way through this if we use the enlightened consciousness that we have been imbued with.
We need to be more involved with each other, we need to be able to pay it forward and at the same time as talking with our neighbours engage in pulling the strings of community together.
For New Zealand as a socially conscious country, we can once again be a global moral leader of how a small synergistic nation can once again be the emerging microcosm for the planetary macrocosm.
Finally, Tara will also tell you the story how he has been able to secure the name of: The New Zealand Party.
Contact: tara [at] NZactions.org.nz
Our interview this week is with Sue Alesbury and Caroll Macy. They are both experienced natural health practitioners capable of helping with both common and difficult to treat conditions.
John Coombs interviews Global Health Clinics' new Client Services Manager, Susan Alesbury on the benefits of being able to create and manage a Designer Holistic Programme not only as a curative approach but also preventative.
Susan Alesbury has a business background and is also qualified in many therapeutic modalities in her own right.
Her special interest is in discovering the Mind Body Spirit connection. From training with the Cross Colour Healing Association in the UK some 20 years ago, she has come full circle after recognising that healing was simply "Firefighting without looking for how the fires were being started". Since that time, she has trained in Clinical Hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Aboriginal Dreamtime, and has trained to Leadership under Tony Robbins where she learned Human Needs Psychology. Now, with the advent of the Biofield Viewer and connecting all the dots with the mental, emotional and spiritual energy fields, Susan is finding the Colour Healing a very potent tool in her toolbox once more.
John then interviews Caroll Macy a specialist in metal and chemical detoxification. As well as helping her clients stabilise hormones which may have been disrupted Caroll helps stimulate the immune system to enable a full recovery.
Caroll’s work is helping many people who have tried for years to get well. Caroll’s system is at the cutting edge of bio energy technology based on the pioneering research and clinical work of Dr Yurkovsky a prominent USA clinician.
Bioresonance Testing is unique in its ability to pin-point exact information concerning the state of your internal organs and many different systems – and the Poisoning agents that may have been lodged in them. Finding which poisons are exerting a paralyzing effect is essential – no guess work – treat the cause, not the symptoms. The Therapy must induce not only the release of identified Metals, Chemicals, Viruses, Bacteria or Fungi; But, it must also support or rebuild the natural defenses of weakened or distressed Organs and Systems; thus preventing the poisons’ from being dumped back into them.
HEAVY METAL POISONING is perhaps the most prevalent and serious condition we find – playing a primary role in nearly all chronic diseases. Mercury and Lead are known to invade every aspect of the body such as the Bone Marrow, Brain, Bladder Bones, Uterus etc. Cobalt and Chromium may be found in tissue surrounding hip replacements. Mercury was once routinely put in our mouths and often still is; even though well proven to cause untold harm. All fossil fuels, from coal to petroleum, contain mercury. Petroleum is used extensively in many Beauty Products. Even the tuna and salmon (being high up in the food chain) we eat can contain high levels of Mercury. Lead, Arsenic, Cobalt and Cadmium are common parts of everyday life – without actually being recognised!
Listen to this interview to discover tips on how to either restore or improve your own or your families health, or simply for improving your general knowledge of health and well being.
For immediate practical help or to book and appointment please go to www.globalhealthclinics.co.nz
At the heart of the attack on our sovereignty is the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement). It is described as a 21st century agreement that will reach further behind the border than any previous free trade or investment agreement. Parliament will have no effective say over these new rules unless they require changes to New Zealand’s domestic law.
There are around 29 chapters in the agreement, very few of which involve old-fashioned trade. Numbered at about 4. Most of them aim to curb the process and content of government’s domestic policy and regulatory decisions.
In practice, the TPPA would give foreign governments and well-resourced foreign companies the right to influence our domestic decisions, and marginalise our own national priorities, advocates and agencies, including Parliament and our courts. Therefore the TPPA is a potent threat to national sovereignty over decision-making processes and institutions, and to open and accountable government. We can only hope that this government, and the next one, will resist the corporate overture and protect the democratic rights of the populace.
Interviewed by Lisa Er, Edward gives us a little of the background to the TPPA which began with an agreement between Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand. It was planned to be a gold standard agreement, with Labour’s Phil Goff negotiating for New Zealand. The US then became interested and now there are 12 countries negotiating the TPPA.
Edward Miller is strategic adviser at FIRST Union, organiser and spokesperson for It's Our Future NZ (the campaign against the TPPA) and is a founding member of the Aotearoa Human Rights Lawyers Association. He has recently completed a Masters thesis on food speculation, and is interested in food, trade, development, finance, and labour and environmental issues. His choice to become a lawyer grew out of his interest in activism.
Edward is concerned about the financialisation of our food. The world can actually feed 13 billion people, but because of financial speculators manipulating and inflating prices the distribution of food is limited to those with enough money to purchase. Agribusiness farming and practices, and scientific manipulation of our food is also a part of this growing corporate food rort.
Edward speaks about the supermarket duopoly in New Zealand that was recently highlighted, quite correctly, by Labour minister Shane Jones. Consumers and suppliers alike are subjected to the effects of pricing particularly by Countdown in their bid to be competitive and gain profit for their Australian owners.
The FIRST union, where Edward is a policy analyst and researcher, grew out of a merger of two unions, in 2011. FIRST is an acronym for Finance, Industry, Retail, Stores, and Transport. Edward explains the result of the deregulation of the forestry industry, the low union representation, and the resulting deaths. In the union they refer to those deaths as a Pike River every five years! Industry, which includes forestry, textiles, clothing and baking are the types of businesses that employ a lot of people, and that is declining, because of the global economy. Retail, tending to sell a lot of imported products or products made from overseas components, is on the increase.
Bearing in mind that most workers earn between $13.75 and $20 an hour Edward also highlights the new money lending business Payday Lenders that targets the small borrower. It appears to lend money at interest rates of a minimum of 300%. This is clearly unacceptable and should be regulated by government.
In fact the government’s ability to legislate will be seriously limited by the TPPA and so, rather obviously, globalisation is only serving corporate interest and the rich few, and is leaving the rest of the world behind, as the general population become poorer and poorer.
As George Sorus, business magnate, investor, and philanthropist observed, “Perhaps the greatest threat to freedom and democracy in the world today comes from the formation of unholy alliances between government and business.
"This is not a new phenomenon. It used to be called fascism: the outward appearances of the democratic process are observed, but the powers of the state are diverted to the benefit of private interests.”
This programme is sponsored by www.theawarenessparty.com
There are “NO WAY TPPA” rallies throughout New Zealand at 1pm this Saturday, March 29th. To find the closest rally to you, go to www.itsourfuture.org.nz
When you listen to this interview, you will very quickly notice that there appears to be no NZ businessman articulating the positivity and profundity of inspirational business models, that can bring a revolutionary impulse to family, community and cooperative commercial archetypes to this country.
If you think that we can wrestle back localised business interests, into the NZ communities hands - listen to this interview, based on Scandinavian and especially Finnish practices.
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Experienced holistic health practitioners Erica Lang and Liz Hart offer simple and effective tips and options towards relieving stress and experiencing optimal health.
Erica who uses a combination of Bodytalk and Counseling helps her clients with a wide range of health challenges. Her clients inevitably experience relief from emotional pain and stress , often feeling real transformational changes to their life.
Liz a local pioneer and teacher of Emotional Freedom technique explains how she helps her clients overcome long term health issues by helping modify unhelpful behaviors and attitudes. Liz offers empowering skills to self manage good health providing clients with tools for managing stress and pain.
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This GreenPlanetFM program is sponsored by:
GLOBAL HEALTH CLINICS: 5 Anzac Street Takapuna North Shore City
Email: info [at] globalhealthclinics.co.nz
Phone: (09) 488 0208 (09) 488 0215
Web: http://www.globalhealthclinics.co.nz
Global Health Clinics use a creative blend of integrating contemporary and
alternative methods together to bring about greater well being or the
healing you have been seeking.
'When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.'
~ Cree Indian saying
...
The Traditional Native American lifestyle is a life of prayer to all of creation. Prayer is so deeply woven into every aspect of life that there is a prayer for every action, on waking and greeting the morning sun, on eating and thanking all the beings that have made that meal possible. Each moment can be made sacred when gratitude is shown for the gifts of this life. This is most beautifully summed up in the phrase Mitakuye Oyasin, Lakota for 'All my relations.' When a prayer is made it is followed by these words that acknowledge our interconnectedness to all life on this planet.
The Web of Life is something that we are part of and this is celebrated in all Native Traditions. Celebration and Gratitude being at the core of Native American Spirituality.
And this gratitude, ritual and otherwise is something that we sometimes forget in our consumer societies so full of things that it often takes a moment to remember the small miracles of every day life.
'The Elm Trees will die, Huge stone monsters will tear open the face of the earth and rivers burning aflame.' These words are taken from The Seventh Generation Prophecy, one well known by many of the Native Nations and remembered here by Gail Whitlow of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Mohawk nation. These words bring to mind Dutch elm disease that has wiped out all but a few elms left in Britain or much of continental Europe. Mining devastating huge swathes of the earth and Fracking that uses and pollutes huge quantities of our most precious resource, water, not to mention the local devastation in Australia where fires have raged for weeks in New South Wales.
The Seventh Generation prophecy says that seven Generations after White man has come into contact with the Native Americans is the time when change must come and that that time is now. Now, is the time to act to bring ourselves back into balance for ourselves and the planet. The prophecy says that this time will come when the wisdom teachings that have been preserved by native people will be needed as we learn how to come back into balance.
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Gail Whitlow, Pipe Carrier and Medicine Woman says 'I am born into the Bear clan. This birth manifests as Healing and medicine. We all once knew our paths according to what clan we were born into. Most now spend all their lives searching for a connection.' Gail has set up Ancestral Voices healing center on the 6 Nations reserve in Ontario Canada where she was raised. Her life's purpose since she was 25 has been to create and facilitate events that foster the traditional ceremonies that allow our connection to Spirit.
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Gil Aguilera is an Honorary Sundance Elder and Staff Carrier, member of Tokala Warrior Society, Chiricahua Apache Alliance, World Council of Elders, Facilitator of Global Spiritual Unity and Condor and Eagle Gatherings. A US Armed Forces Veteran with a successful career as a program administrator in Aerospace and government programs. Gil has been on a Worldwide journey of self discovery seeking the 'original spiritual instructions' that the great spirit handed down to us and how to best incorporate these first teachings into his own spiritual path is his life's mission.
This Journey has taken him to most of the North, Central and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He has prayed with his Chanupa (sacred pipe) in many Native American sacred ceremonies and vision quests and sat in council with many indigenous spiritual world elders to discover his true spiritual mission. Gil utilizes his integrity, spiritual wisdom, and knowledge to unite people of all world cultures to integrate our living past culture with our present and to work together towards restoring our sacred relationships with the Great Spirit and Mother Earth.
The current environmental crisis of many of the worlds eco-systems has been foretold by Native American nations. The fulfillment of these prophecies at this time is seen as the call to wake-up and for people to bring their lives back into alignment into harmonious living with the planet.
Gil Aguilera, Gail Whitlow and Ruben Saufkie are coming to New Zealand to share their teachings at two not be be missed events. Ruben, a Hopi is from the "Patkiwunga" Water Clan and will be leading a Water Blessing Ceremony open to all at Kawai Purapura at 12pm on Sunday the 22nd March - Joining hearts and minds with many others in a synchronized global event.
For more information please contact Stephanie Frost at
frost.steph@gmail.com and check out the heartspace website at
www.heartspace.co.nz for full details on these events:
Tales from Turtle Island of Prophecies and Healing
113 Mt Eden Road
The Quaker Meeting House, Wed 19 Mar at 6:30pm
Healing The Sacred Hoop - Spiritual Gathering of Elders Kawai Purapura Retreat Centre, Auckland Friday 21st - Sunday 23rd March
Hopi Water Blessing - 12pm Sunday 23rd March @ Kawai Purapura Albany.
Years ago humans had no rights. In the times when slavery was legal, abuses to slaves were deemed an issue of property law, not an issue of human rights. From this relationship of owner to slave, you cannot have anything other than an exploitative relationship.
In this interview, Carl Chenery explains that this kind of thinking of human separation from, and domination over nature itself, is embedded into the very structure of our western legal system. Through our legal systems we attribute all the rights to humans as subjects, and everything else (except companies) as being objects or property to be owned.
Gaia, our living breathing planet that is home to all of us, does not have rights. And without rights, like an unfortunate slave, she, our only home, is being used and slowly destroyed.
On September 28, 2008, the people of Ecuador voted by an overwhelming majority (64%) to approve a new constitution which included Pachamama, nature, in the constitution, which was then ratified on Oct 20th 2008.
Carl Chenery went to Ecuador in 2012 and met with some of those who were central to the incorporation of the rights of nature into the constitution. He and others in the group from the organisation, Awakening the Dreamer, were keen to see if the ideas could be incorporated into a New Zealand constitution.
This progressive and conscious move by Ecuador is something that New Zealand would do well to look at.
Below are the Rights for Nature as written in the Ecuador constitution.
Article. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.
Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms (courts and government agencies). The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.
Article. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.
In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.
Article. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.
Article. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.
The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can
alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.
Article. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.
'The environmental services cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.'
As well as talking about the constitution, Lisa puts some hard-hitting questions to Carl around the commodification of nature, and the very real downsides of replacing conservation with market based environmental management. Does the role of the emerging multi-billion dollar per year ecosystem market assist or inhibit conserving biodiversity and natural geographical features?
Carl works as a sustainability strategist, and has contributed to a range of local and national initiatives including 350 Aotearoa, Intersect, Awakening the Dreamer Aotearoa, and ReGeneration Networks.
Carl was North & South Magazine Young Achiever for 2011, and finalist in Kiwibank Young New Zealander of the Year in 2011.
Carl loves being in the outdoors and spending time with his family including his 9 month old daughter Abigail.
Carl Chenery twitter: @carlchenery
Here are some excellent links to some web sites on topics that are mentioned in the interview.
Pachamama Alliance / Awakening the Dreamer Symposium
http://www.uptous.org/symposium
‘New Thinking on Sustainability’ Conference 14-16 February 2014 in Wellington, including speakers on Rights of Nature:
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/law/about/events-old/nz-centre-for-public-law/new-thinking-on-sustainabil ity
NZ Constitutional Advisory Panel Report on the 2012-13 ‘Constitutional Conversation’ (including feedback on Environment rights p51 and recommendations p48)
http://www.ourconstitution.org.nz/The-Report
Recent Waitangi Tribunal settlement developments:
Whanganui River Te Awa Tupua – “Agreement entitles Whanganui River to legal identity”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830586
Te Urewera-T_hoe Bill: "Te Urewera declared to be legal entity"
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2013/0146/latest/DLM5481637.html
Blogpost: Latest on the First International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature:
http://www.pachamama.org/news/latest-on-the-first-international-tribunal-on-rights-of-nature
Rights of Nature Article - Quakers Newsletter November 2012
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r0yoz1a8jc0q77d/BI8UnEeTYy
This interview was sponsored by The Awareness Party
Every large city on earth is gripped with limits to growth. Especially cars in gridlock and clogging motorways and roads. We witness it every day at rush hour as we sit frustrated in traffic, wondering when will this increasing problem ever be solved?
Enter A New Idea:
The concept of affordable personal rapid transport pods, travelling above ground that whisk you across the city along an environmentally benign 2-directional elevated guide-way to your destination, in comfort, safely, swiftly and cheaply.
Is this possible? What would be the cost? Is it environmentally benign?
The system is called the Metropolitan Individual System of Transportation on Elevated Rail (MISTER).
With over $3 Billion allocated for a tunnel from Britomart in Auckland to Epsom, are the rate payers willing to dig further into their pockets for an outdated transport system, when that amount of money would cover the totality of suburban Auckland with a Personal Rapid Transport System?
The fact that even today the NZ Government is balking at such extravagance, gives us time to pause and look at other options.
Yes:
The PRT system, is a city-wide network linking all of the suburbs with each other and to the Central Business District and would transport people faster than rail or even car and directly to their destinations, without any need for transfers or parking space.
It would eliminate entirely the need for railway, light rail and buses in Auckland, while providing much more convenient, faster, safer and cheaper service, including it being available 24/7, all of the time without waiting and with no more than 2 minutes of waiting at peak times.
How does this compare with current 'solutions' ? At the same time, for the cost of building just this one underground tunnel system ($3B+) the PRT system would cover the entire Auckland area with over 300km of network, replacing all subsidised trains and all buses in the CBD and being capable of carrying 1 million plus rides per DAY, when current rail carries 10 million per YEAR !
PRT - Personal Rapid Transit See the video www.mist-er.com
Is a 50 year old concept, and as a result of inexpensive computing technology is now a feasible mode of mass transport.
It consists of :
Infrastructure consists of a light guide-ways suspended 10-15 meters above the ground, over city streets or along the curb side or in the central reservation of the freeways or wide streets. Small and frequent off-line stops. Automatic, small car sized vehicles transport one or a few passengers who know each other (family or friends) in luxury and comfort.
Travel is on demand and always available (24 x 7) Travel directly from start to destination with no stopping and no interchanges. High average speed of 50 km/hr or better.
Infrastructure development :
Let Auckland Rate Payers have a discussion here in Auckland and also across New Zealand.
Have Auckland be the Leading Livable City within the Pacific Basin.
http://mist-er.com
Kailash is a sound therapist, artist and inner world musician - bridge maker to indigenous peoples.
He is also a photographer and teacher of Kailash Chi Movements and Songdances.
As a multi instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and producer he is an internationally requested studio- and guest musician playing a great variety of (wind) instruments ranging from Didgeridoo to (Native American) Flutes, as well as reed instruments, percussive soundscapes, drums, crystal singing bowls, string instruments and vocals.
Within the last 20 years Kailash Kokopelli has shared his INNER WORLD MUSIC on every continent touching many thousand people all over the globe.
Kailash performes in schools, universities, therapeutical institutions, conferences, festivals, private and in concert halls all over the world, guiding his audience on musical journeys to the inner source.
He has been recognized as a tribal brother and bridgemaker by indigenous people as well as a pioneer soundtherapist by medical practitioners and international doctors. Many therapists use Kailash Kokopelli's INNER WORLD MUSIC for its relaxing and healing qualities.
In this interview Kailash explains what the possibilities are and how we surmount certain challenges by understanding the language of the heart.
We are all related as a human family and if we are to survive as a species, we really need to wake up to this simple basic truth that we are all related to all living beings on this planet. That we are Guardians and just not children of the earth and we have a responsibility of care to preserve what lives within the biosphere and the need for mindfulness as to how we live and express ourselves.
As an extension of the earth we need to constantly remember that what we enjoy today has been lent to us by previous generations thus the imperative that we bequeath a healthy sustainable world onto our children and grandchildren is so important.
He tells how we can come back to a place of harmony and find within ourselves a place of reverence, which is through our heart. And our heart is the inner compass for our guidance.
Where as in todays world we’ve become so enmeshed in our mind, our schedules and daily survival mode that causes us to lose our focus - whilst on our hamster wheels of separation and from that which supports us is diminished and in most cases lost. When, if we take the time, and listen to our heart, this is the way to a direct connection to source. – the great mystery of life.
We are a rainbow nation of many colours and creeds, that we humans are guests here on the earth and here for a limited time being related to all biota we can step into the sacred circle of life and immerse ourselves into a unity consciousness of all beings.
It’s interconnection with all life.
Remember we are all students of life, even a master if they are true to themselves, will admit to being a student … being present to deep listening.
We are in a time of imbalance and our planet is in transition through a major shift in energy and awareness and to the awakened - a purification - for what we do to the earth we do to ourselves and to future generations as well.
We need to look into ourselves to re evaluate our values, our virtues the ethics of how we negotiate life.
Being thankful and being in gratitude, is a key to magnetising success into our existence and this abundance we can share with each other.
Through the door way of the heart we can also access the akashic records and tap into a greater knowing beyond time and space.
Reciprocity: Is another key to our survival, through co-operation and co-creation.
If we continue the mathematics of economics, or ecology as we are promulgating now, we inherently know where this will lead to, yet we still continue to do this, when we know we have to break this chain.
We have built a world today at a huge cost to nations and the earth itself.
We have self limiting belief systems and encage ourselves within this context of our own ignorance or unknowingness.
Acknowledging our ancestors – we have our lives today, that have been bequeathed to us from our forefathers and the birthings from countless mothers – we have them to thank for our very fortunate circumstances that we live in today and we are taking this for granted – some would say abusing the privelegde through over indulgence, waste, abuse, drunkeness, debauchery.
However when we tune in to the magnifence of our bloodline, our linage – then comes the gratitude.
Sun ceremonies – the sun is full and rounded and gives out its light unconditionally and this is an invitation for us all to be able to express ourselves from our heart and let the light of who we are express its fullness.
The imperative is for us to listen to the first nation peoples, the wisdom keepers of the earth, those people who are immersed in earth energies, living among forests, mountains, along side rivers and streams and higher latitudes. Deeply embedded in the pulse of life, often barefooted.
To walk the path of beauty to witness the magnificence of nature – at the same to keep a pure heart to walk in reverence and to walk in gratitude.
Blue Pearl Mother Earth:
We here in Aotearoa are lving in one of the last 'Gardens of Eden' on our planet – Kailash's call to we NZers is to please preserve this living earth and all that is sacred and be responsible in taking true guardianship of what has been bequeathed to us.
The power of prayer too is emphasised – with a pure intention within a unified field – that 'miracles can happen.'
Listen to a very knowing man who from his youth has walked his talk and experienced a fascinating life well beyond the daily understanding of the Western mind.
www.kailash-kokopelli.com
Appearing at Voices of the Sacred Earth Eco Festival - 21st, 22nd and 23rd of February 2014 at Albany Northshore at - Kawai Purapura Retreat Centre.
http://www.kawaipurapura.co.nz
John Coombs interviews Patient Advocate and busy mother Tania Nevill and Wellness Coach and Lifestyle Mentor Susan Somerville on the practical benefits of well managed Holistic Health programs for people from all walks of life with many helpful hints and suggestions.
Tania Nevill founder of iconic corporate menswear company Working Style has a new working focus in life: helping optimise the wellness of the local community with obvious spin offs for her family.
Tania shares with you the process she went through to resolve long term fatigue from trying to balance family and a busy working life, as well as the long term benefits she and her family experienced from Holistic Health.
Having achieved her initial goal of more vitality Tania then focused on optimising her health which meant she can contribute more effectively to patient advocacy to benefit the whole community.
Susan Somerville has a science and psychology background which lead her to a diverse working career in accelerated learning, HR and environmental programs.
Having since trained in metabolic nutrition Susan follows Tania's thread with practical solutions to common health issues.
Her special interest is anti-aging and optimised wellness, which occurs when people initiate wellness lifestyle systems; including an obvious balance of exercise, sleep, nutrition and leisure with effective health care across the spectrum of physical, mental emotional and spiritual therapeutics.