“Open the books,” is Mayoral candidate Penny Bright’s catch phrase, She hasn’t paid her rates for 9 years, and won’t until Auckland Council tells us how our rate payers money is being spent.
Auckland Mayoral Candidate and public watchdog Penny Bright talks with Lisa Er.
'Activists get things done'!
“It's time to stop the commercialisation and privatisation of Council services and regulatory functions, and return to the genuine 'public service' model” says Penny.
“It's time for we the people to take back control of our region, our assets and our resources!”
This October, voting Penny Bright for Mayor will not be just a 'protest' vote - but a vote for real change that will serve the public and the public interest - not corporate interests.
“I'm fiercely and genuinely politically independent and work on an 'issue by issue' basis. My proven track record is 20 years experience in local government, defending the public & the public interest, as a self-funded anti-privatisation & anti-corruption 'Public Watchdog'.”
“I am opposed to corporate control, locally, nationally and internationally, and am the only Auckland Mayoral candidate who is actively opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).”
Penny also asserts that it is time to 'roll back Rogernomics' which was based on the myth and mantra 'public is bad - private is good'.
(Rogernomics neo-liberal philosophy embraces five basic principles:
1 The rule of the market
2 Cutting public expenditure for social services
3 Deregulation
4 Privatisation
5 Eliminating the concept of public good or community.)
“In my opinion, the only ones to have benefited from running public services in a more 'business-like' mode are those businesses which have been awarded the contracts.
However, if Government and Council public services are now being owned, operated and managed for private profit without cost-benefit analysis - then that, in my view is 'corporate welfare', to which I am totally opposed.
Open the books - cut out the contractors - bring Council services & regulatory functions back 'in house' under the public service model, and stop corrupt cronyism and corporate welfare.”
If elected Auckland Mayor Penny Bright will ensure the rule of law is implemented and enforced regarding ratepayers and citizens lawful rights to open, transparent and democratically accountable local government.
“I'm also totally opposed to 'democracy for developers' and question why all this 'growth' has to come to Auckland?
In my view, there should be a national population growth, migration and regional employment strategy.”
Who benefits now from this 'One Plan' for Auckland, in my view, are property developers, foreign investors, bankers, land bankers, speculators and money-launderers.
This is a 'Supercity' - for the 1%.
The Auckland region is being run 'like a business - by business - for business, the mechanism for this effective corporate takeover being the 'Council Controlled Organisation' (CCO) model.
It's time to stop the commercialisation and privatisation of Council services and regulatory functions, and return to the genuine 'public service' model.
It's time for we the people to take back control of our region, our assets and our resources!”
This time voting Penny Bright for Mayor will not be just a 'protest' vote - but a vote for real change that will serve the public and the public interest - not corporate interests.
Penny’s Bio:
AT 61, Penny sees her life as an onion, with many layers to her life.
Her formative childhood years were in the Wairarapa. She was brought up on a 6 acre lifestyle block in Carterton, where she picked strawberries in Greytown as a 10 year old, to help buy a pony with the required riding gear.
From this she learned to focus, and work hard to achieve what she wanted in life.
She did well academically, but chose not to go University, having discovered political activism in her 7th form year through joining the anti-apartheid movement.
After a year of hitch-hiking around New Zealand staying at Youth Hostels in the days when you could just walk into jobs off the street, she got on a plane to Sydney with $200 in the bank - to see the world.
She didn't get past Australia!
In Perth West Australia, in 1974, she got involved in the first famous campaign against foreign military bases in Australia, and was part of the 'Long March' across Australia against the USA base at North West Cape.
She decided to return to New Zealand to become more politically involved, and ended up working for 6 years in a home appliance factory in Masterton and working as a Union activist on the factory floor.
Penny was made redundant in 1981 and so went to Auckland to live. She was one of the 12 people who organised the anti- Springbok Tour protests in Auckland in 1981.
This resulted in her being listed as one of 8 'subversives' on then Prime Minister Rob Muldoon's SIS list, although she has never been able to get a copy of her SIS file, and the GCSB would neither confirm or deny whether she was one of the 88 New Zealanders who had been unlawfully spied upon.
After working for 4 years as an electronics assembler in a 'brown goods' factory, and being eventually sacked as a Union activist for being an arguably effective Union delegate, Penny did a welding course at (then) Auckland Institute of Technology (AIT).
She was first employed as a welder and then ended up doing an adult apprenticeship in a stainless steel fabrication workshop qualifying in Advanced Trade in Sheet metal Engineering, where she became New Zealand's first female CBIP (Certification Board for Inspectorate Personnel) Welding Inspector.
After doing some production planning, Penny became a Quality Assurance Co-ordinator, whose job it was to help ensure that pressure vessels didn't blow up, and make sure that quality systems were in place so that the jobs that went out on the truck, were that which the sales people had promised, and the clients had ordered and paid for.
After a change of company ownership when a number of people were made redundant Penny was subsequently hired as a Welding Tutor for 9 years at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), where she helped teach thousands of (mainly) men how to weld.
So Penny had 16 years of working in a totally male-dominated environment.
In 2000, she was made redundant from MIT, and having being fortunate enough to become mortgage-free that same year, Penny decided to work full-time on a self-funded basis on the political issues that she was involved with.
These were mainly on the local government front, as a founding member of the Water Pressure Group against Auckland City Council's commercialised water services company Metrowater, and water privatisation.
Penny has now been involved in local government issues in Auckland for the last 20 years. On the home front she has been together with ‘a lovely man’ who is hugely supportive of her, for over 10 years.
Always campaigning with an element of humour, Penny signs her e-mails with,
‘Her Warship’.
This interview was sponsored by The Awareness Party http://www.theawarenessparty.com/home/
PENNY BRIGHT’S ACTION PLAN TO ENSURE 'OPEN, TRANSPARENT AND DEMOCRATICALLY ACCOUNTABLE' NZ GOVERNMENT AND JUDICIARY:
1) Make ALL 'facilitation payments' (BRIBES) illegal.
2) Legislate to create a NZ independent anti-corruption body, tasked with educating the public and preventing corruption.
3) Legislate for NZ Members of Parliament (who make the rules for everyone else) to have a legally enforceable 'Code of Conduct'.
4) Make it an offence under the Local Government Act 2002, for NZ Local Government elected representatives to breach their 'Code of Conduct'.
5) Make it lawful, mandatory requirement for Local Government elected representatives to complete a 'Register of Interests' which is available for public scrutiny.
6) Make it a lawful, mandatory requirement for Local Government staff, responsible for property or procurement, to complete a 'Register of Interests' which is available for public scrutiny.
7) Make it lawful, a mandatory requirement for Local Government Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) Directors and staff, responsible for property or procurement, to complete a 'Register of Interests' which is available for public scrutiny.
8) Fully implement and enforce the Public Records Act 2005, to ensure public records are available for public scrutiny.
9) Make it a lawful requirement that a 'cost-benefit' analysis of NZ Central Government and Local Government public finances must be undertaken, to prove that private procurement of public services previously provided 'in house' is cost-effective for the public majority of tax payers and rate payers.
10) Legislate for a legally enforceable 'Code of Conduct' for members of the NZ Judiciary, to ensure that they are not 'above the law'.
11) Legislate to provide a publicly-available NZ Judicial 'Register of Interests', to help prevent 'conflicts of interest'.
12) Ensure ALL NZ Court proceedings are recorded, with audio records available to parties who request them.
13) Legislate for a publicly-available NZ 'Register of Lobbyists, and 'Code of Conduct' for lobbyists.
14) Legislate for a 'post-separation employment' ('revolving door' ) quarantine period from the time officials leave the public service, to take up a similar role in the private sector.
15) Legislate to make it a lawful requirement that it is only a binding vote of the public majority that can determine whether public assets held at NZ central or local government are sold, or long-term leased via Public Private Partnerships.
16) Legislate to make it unlawful for politicians to knowingly misrepresent their policies prior to central or local government elections.
17) Legislate to protect individuals, NGOs and community-based organisations, who are 'whistle-blowing' against 'conflicts of interest' and and alleged corrupt practices at central and local government level and within the judiciary.
18) Legislate to prevent 'State Capture' - where vested interests get what they want, at the 'policy' level, before laws are passed which serve their vested interests.
Policy of 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright. www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Authorised by Penny Bright 86A School Rd Kingsland Auckland
Want to help? e-mail - waterpressure@gmail.com
This week I interviewed David Icke the British researcher - on shattering the hypnotic program that has psychologically allowed us to sleep-walk our way into George Orwell’s 1984 and conversely, succumbing to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World - by default.
David has a very interesting take of what’s happening today and even though we have been warned to participate more fully in our democracy, we have let our politicians essentially, run away with their own agenda. For instance, increasing their own pay packets regularly, and on many levels, basically dispensing with their commitment to being ‘our servants’ to act for the public good.
Note that, when we visit the book - 1984, we read that a totalitarian regime reigns by fear, using mass surveillance and the media to impose its authority on the populace. Those who step out of line risk having their existences erased. Rebellion is quelled by force.
Then we compare it to Brave New World, mass surveillance is unnecessary - rather, people are controlled by their desires; promiscuity is encouraged, people are given endless supplies of narcotics, and there’s entertainment galore. There’s no force to quell a rebellion, because one could never happen. The populace has become comfortably numb.
This then leads to the study of the hybridisation of the above two scenarios, where today, the controllers, bankers and their world wide security apparatus at the top of the pyramid - continue to cast their spell. They are doing this by feverishly working 24/7 to consolidate their power with ‘treaties’ and ‘acts’ pushed through under urgency - in many cases in secret without the knowledge of the masses, as they accelerate the neoliberal economic programme - in lockstep with the neocon agenda - coupled with the military industrial complex - to secure a One World Government.
So in this interview David decodes the psychological and mental processes that influences our behaviours in particular how we have been subtly programmed for decades and before that - to not now - question anything - especially consensus reality! That with the advent of electronic mass media, and mesmerising sound bites, plus mobile technology - and the titillation of stardom, glamour and celebrity, we are being constantly steered away from thinking deeply about issues. Specifically, negating the values and virtues we were once imbued with, many, generations and decades ago.
We have instead become engrossed and distracted in minutiae at the expense of the big picture.
So this lucid exchange, explains how we have become entangled in this spell, as well as awakening us to the real possibility of breaking this increasing mass psychosis and again reclaiming our humanity, our respective countries and our planet, especially for the future of our children and grandchildren.
This interview covers a diverse number of subjects and went for nearly 90 minutes. We will post the video of the full skype recording shortly, but this one hour interview will give you a warm taster.
In this particular interview David covers:
The nature of reality and the quantum field.
He then says that when we acknowledge that we are:
“Infinite awareness, all that is, has been and ever can be - and that ‘we’ are all possibility.”
A subtle, but substantial shift happens.
That every human has this potential - meaning you and I and everyone else.
This leads us to get beyond the onion skins - of the programming
It’s about “connecting the dots.”
That we live within a holographic universe - that our world is also and it is also illusionary.
Covering religion and the paranormal.
Programming and sleep walking.
Once humans open up to expand their awareness - it will be so great that it will out-picture the status quo, including the limitations of the shadow as we become able to expose that which has been recently closing in around us.
Banking and politics, are lockstep together.
Trans-humanism and this insidious and deceptive programming of turning humans into robots, with silicon chip consciousness. (He just touches on this).
Unless we awaken to our true-self and go beyond the program - nothing is going to change, especially for the better.
Decoding that our planet at another level is holographic - and that our planet is a vast swirling information field. As are all the planets and constellations in this quadrant of the galaxy.
That the universe is basically a colossal / gigantic wifi field so the more our awareness expands - the more of the field we become aware of …
Vibrations and how to be able to decode and access the many levels so as to understand, sound, sight, touch, smell and taste. That everything is information and how we can interpret and decipher this information - intuitively - spontaneously.
Plant intelligence and that there are many instances of people recording and measuring their responses, that we can have relationships on many levels. With animals too.
Pain relieving techniques that cut of the senses from an area in the body that is in pain. There are hospitals now doing this.
A global agenda for controlling the human race.
The minds of many just do not want to see things in the future - especially if it’s going to be perceived as difficult. Denial and negativity - certain people do not want to face reality.
A powerful piece on what is negativity and perceptions of why is it that people only want to see the easy and good things of life?
So the clever way is to manipulate people’s reality and ’tell them what they want to hear and read.’ Yes it’s true - ‘NZ is still very Clean and Green’ so, don’t be put off by a few radical hippy, greenies pointing out the data from scientific research!
This is becoming more and more pronounced here in NZ, as no matter how many untruths emanate from the present government, supporters will continue to believe their elected representative, because the unvarnished truth will erode their version of reality. So they avoid and deny this reality, to the long term detriment to society and our value system and our children’s future.
This is particularly relevant with the super secret global trade deals that are being enforced on us.
David clarifies what is happening regarding: The TPPA, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the TIIP, The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership having different names but are one interlocking deal, like giant jigsaw pieces that slot together, that will clamp and lock all countries into a new world order of trade - run by corporations. Including the (CETA) The Canada and European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. These are all not people friendly and we have to wake up to what’s in our future.
Plus much other subject matter from 911 to Geo-engineering. This will soon be on the GreenplanetFM.com web site as an MP4 video - unedited.
David Icke will be in NZ on August the 6th at the Logan Campbell centre in One Tree Hill Auckland. from 10 am to 10 pm - to download what is happening.
Tickets: http://theworldwidewakeup.com
Join Tim on a journey into greater understanding as he reflects on the lifetime drivers that have pulled the threads of GreenplanetFM.com and Ourplanet.org together.
For any budding All Black or athlete we were conditioned as children in NZ, that we really could achieve success, especially in the realm of sport and take on the world.
This was favourably looked on throughout our schooling and this is where we could excel up to international level. It was basically how we played the game.
Born on a dairy farm in a well-off region near Matamata, yet among financially challenged Maori, I saw both sides of our so called bi-cultural society, and then in my early 20’s when traveling overseas it all hit me that there was so much inequity - and inequality - especially in Africa and at different levels throughout the Iron Curtain countries. That when hitchhiking and travelling back to NZ from the UK - overland, through the Middle East to India down to Singapore, I witnessed so many poor and struggling - when there was only 3.5 billion in the human population in those days.
This is where I really saw that our planet was in trouble, but not being empowered or having the skills to initiate change from the core of my being, I eventually accepted that this was the way things were and I just did what a large segment of the (younger) population do today and that is, have fun, enjoy and have a good time. Though I did make token gestures by donating to Greenpeace.
At the age of 25 I woke up from that life of self indulgence, pubs and parties to realise that we, as a human species especially in the West were methodically pulling the collective rug out from underneath our feet. That we were destroying the biosphere and it was happening at an increasing pace.
This awakening was synchronistically timed by meeting some very conscious people who saw this madness and were consciously aware that we had to question - how does a human being live on a planet?
By metaphorically stripping myself of all things physical, right to the essence of who I am, I started to reconfigure my being to understand my place in the universe as well as focus my attention on awakening people - any people to what is going to befall us, especially the children of today and tomorrow.
This has led me to an adventure of global proportions, that through serendipity and synchronicity has brought me in contact with leaders in many differing fields, at the same time validating to me - that I am on the right path.
This led me into living in a community, whilst I took a job, which I originally thought would be for 6 months, such was the mindset, that we could go from job to job in those days.
This so called job as International cabin crew for Air New Zealand took me on long distance flights around the curve of our mother planet, from hemisphere to hemisphere, Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic - spending the equivalent of 2 years of my life flying 10 kilometres above the surface of our planet. (sort of like near earth orbit) and in those days we didn’t have chemtrails.
It was over a 17 year period that I was able to visit the ruins and study most of the ancient civilisations that had come and gone and I was able to check out many unexplained anomalies as well, including what their religions and philosophies were, and understanding far more as to why they collapsed.
It was during this time that I became aware that our planet was a giant living super organism - (Yet only later, embedded the idea that it (she) had loaned us bodies. Yet, looking down on our majestic planet and marvelling at much beauty and diversity, I also observed shimmering oils slicks floating on the surface of the vast Pacific ocean, areas of continuous denuded soil and clay in Malaysia, where mighty forests once sprung forth, brown soot covering snow in gigantic swaths of Northern Canada and Greenland and especially in 1976 - for 10 years or so, (before improvements in air quality) I used to fly through the industrial haze and atmospheric debris of Los Angeles international airport - hundreds of times. Then in 1993 I gave away flying as one of the main reasons being, the huge amount of oxygen a 747-400 used in its 11 hour trans Pacific and trans Canada - Atlantic flights, plus - other considerations.
However, I had so many adventures in many countries, meeting leading edge scientists, mystics, researchers and people modelling sustainability, especially in an ecological context as well as visiting areas at the forefront and vanguard of hydrogen energy, levitation and solar and windmill energy, holography and morphic-resonance - ideas far in advance of what were happening in NZ.
I also checked out intentional communities and ways that people shared shelter and living space. Attending lectures and events like the World Symposium of the Humanities, Whole life Expo’s and Body Mind & Spirit festivals. I was definitely gifted the opportunity.
Which leads me to today and the relaunching of GreenplanetFM as a new platform for conscious media, from a local to a global context.
That will be embedded in OurPlanet.org as a conscious intent, to encourage win win actions and deeds to our world.
Because it is our purpose to ask the question; “how does a human live on a planet?”
That our Planet is a colossal living super organism and an can be likened as a cell is embedded in a larger Galactic super organism.
That every child born into this realm is ‘an energy bundle of exponential potential.’
That we are far more than we very thought possible.
We are here to empower and inspire the individual to evolve the human race.
We will take it deeper then …
With Anima Mundi world soul - there is an intrinsic connection between all living beings on our planet, which relates to our world - in much the same way as the soul is integrated into the human body.
We have other subtle subject matter like the anchoring of the sacred ( Divine) Feminine in NZ in 1893, so as to join the sacred Male in the coming together of the yin and yang - the balance of the Male and the Female in accord to the unfolding of the new paradigm.
That in the words of Nikola Tesla, the man who brought electricity to virtually every home and building on earth: “The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
That the sacred feminine is under assault today and can been seen very clearly in the outside world as Gaia is relentless plundered, mined and denuded.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/68363264/New-Zealand-legally-recognises-animals-as-sentient-beings
The Animal Welfare Amendment Bill, states that animals, like humans, are "sentient" beings.
Yes, there are the overwhelmers, the fact that we are overpopulating.
The focus will also include that Our Planet is also a Spaceship Earth and ‘we are the crew’ coming back to our posts and using the recently deployed www to reconnect at another level etc
And that the crew have found out that their ship is a Mothership, ‘from her all things have issued’ - and they find out that she has another name - Gaia (Papatuanuku Maori) that the ancient Greeks knew of and understood and thus for us in the 21st century when we as an aware and conscious humanity wake up to our connection as a global human family and bring about peace, we become the flowering of Gaia - to become the Gaiasphere, (when we realise that we all share breath - ‘When she breathes in, we breathe out and when we breathe in she breathes out’ - the next level of evolution may make itself known.
That all minerals are evolving (a fantastic story since not long after the big bang) - to eventually the Noosphere that Teihard De Chardin - that at heart we Alpha and Omega and that heart introduces global group mind, and unity consciousness - all oscillating at the same frequency, yet every single human still has their own musical note and individuality as they melt into the greater oneness …
For the first time in human history the phenomenon of the global population ageing and its impact on social cohesion and economic sustainability is increasing - and needs to be addressed.
The political word for elders is gerantocracy … When soon, older people will be in the majority and we will have to rethink, what democracy is …
This interview is about re-languaging, leadership, acknowledgement and the impacting of more people ageing and how we factor them into the full healthy happy lives.
Covering New Zealand, to China and Japan as well as Europe - now known as super-ageing countries and NZ too, is getting close to becoming a super-ageing country.
Whereas, Europe has been discussing this issue for 20 years NZ has not. The OECD has been warning us as well.
For example - In Tauranga a NZ city of 130,000, ageing people are going to be 1 in 3 in ten years time - it is moving faster that we recognise.
An engaging interview that everyone in society needs to became aware of - the surge in numbers of people ageing and how are we going to factor the many variables as well as the costs into this phenomenon.
This interview covers:
* What population ageing means - fewer young people-more older people living longer.
* Super-aging nations, changing economies and international responses.
* New Zealand ageing. Issues, challenges and opportunities - Time to wake up and get over ageism-stop denying the reality.
* Impact in regions and communities that some cities like Tauranga will in 10 years time have 40% of its population as elders.
* Need for changing the language, systems understand, adapt and innovate - the good work of Kiwi Bank, NZ Super Fund.
* Age - friendly everything needs to be factored - urban planning, products and services for people living longer living more and longer after retirement
* Investing in growing a Silver Economy - what is it, what does this mean, what is happening internationally?
* Opportunity for younger generations, millennials to be innovative is finding ways to tap into this market, be for services and products.
* 10 age-friendly things to do today in your community new models-of care ( perhaps future of retirement villages) Men’s Sheds.
* The role of Elders - leadership / values / role models giving hope to future generations.
When we look at Europe especially Greece, but also Portugal, Spain and Italy the populations are basically stagnant, the people are getting older and these countries are not really growing economically and the people continue to age and expect pensions. Where there is an urgent need for a new economic formula.
Fortunately, here in NZ, Michael Cullen when he was the Minister of Finance in the Clark Labour Government put in Kiwi Saver and the National Super Fund, but Carole feels that we need to contribute more to it. We evidently had one of the the top investment companies handling the fund, but when the Key Government came to power they stopped the investments contributing into that fund - despite the fact that it was/is a good performer.
At present because the ageing population have very few champions for this demographic, there is virtually no discussion that factors in the growing numbers of people who are over 60 etc and Carole says we can now include the 50 year olds as well.
With local government being pushed by central government to open up to more urban sprawl, how will older people who live further out of the city going to travel to their doctor, physiotherapist or hospital to visit friends or buy food etc - when they have to travel such huge distances and now may not be allowed to drive? Carole says there is a need for lifetime neighbourhoods or age friendly communities - so that those people can better manage their lives - instead of struggling to drive in over-full motorways or a poor train network.
What has happened is Katikati, near Tauranga is an example of people leaving Auckland over the last 10 years, and because it is a good thriving, modern, country town, with many facilities and good climate, it now has over 40% of its inhabitants over 65 years of age - and that demographic as a possible future microcosm of NZ - is actually greater than they have in Japan - however Japan because it is the highest ageing country on our planet, has already planned for these changes and can absorb the changing circumstances.
The interview also covers ‘social capital’ which is the people and their combined and diverse abilities plus qualities and how can we assist them and their community to make their area more cohesive and resilient.
Carole has a little mantra which says - “we need to understand what population ageing means - then we need to adapt and then we need to innovate”.
Local Government needs to start factoring in the aged in their 10 year plans and focus on the changing of the demographics - up until now they have been lacking and their vision.
For example - In Tauranga a city of 130,000, ageing people are going to be 1 in 3 in ten years time - it is moving faster that we recognise.
The critical issue is this is demographic denial and she believes that we are not languaging ageing - in that we are not talking about it.
Carol is very strong in calling out the way society talks about the elderly and that the ‘old people are the others’ - separated from society. She says, they are our people - and they are our families - and they are our grandparents and our parents and they are our elders. That if we deny them we are also in many ways denying our old age. She feels very passionate that we remain connected on every level as these older people have contributed much to our communities and our society as a whole.- especially the growth and prosperity of NZ.
She says the terminology of ‘older people’ needs to be languaged in a new choice of vernacular - using the words ‘mature and older people’ and we have ‘old and older’ people.
The last half of life can be purposeful and meaningful, that the baby boomers will never be old they will be pushing the boundaries at many levels.
We are coming into the ‘No Age Society.’
Our Future:
The longevity economy or the silver economy - is expected to grow globally by $15 trillion by 2020 and in NZ from 1$1.5 billion from 2011 to $65 billion in 2050 and you will never read or hear about this in the media or from politicians of the impact of the boomers.
Because ether are living longer and icing well - however though purchasing of good and leisure activities, Carole’s interest is in lifelong learning, of new skills extending our education reflecting on philosophical thoughts etc etc.
Retirement villages are denuding society of the wisdom and joy of the elders by locking them away in separation from their families and the community as a whole. It definitely does not benefit people at this age to lose connection with family, relatives, friends and community.
Yet, internationally countries, especially in Europe are adapting to these changes by manufacturing and marketing products that make life more easier for elders to negotiate life. (listen to the interview)
Carole languages the possibilities and the opportunities that we need to look for and work towards - this is a key focus for her. She has been at an arts debate recently where the discussion mentioned that the ‘neo-liberal economy’ has reached its limits creating many social problems and that it is time that we revisited ‘economy’ in far more people and community friendly ways.
Many old established towns in NZ are very possibly going to fall away because there will be no young people left and thus the ageing people will hang in until they finally die. And this is already happening in Japan where the Government has closed off villages and closed off roads as they are not economically viable anymore. In some instances schools were closed and turned into nursing homes for older people.
In NZ we have no outdoor gyms that are put up for elders to go out, have a get-together, do some exercises and meet and catch up.
When a person retires with a lot of accumulated knowledge - the name of the game is to have that person engaged somehow sharing this even if it only via workshops or other festivals or gatherings - maybe at night schools etc.
This is only from the the first 20 minutes of this engaging interview.
Footnote:
Yet, we also have to factor in climate change and all the other urgent global variables that are happening within the biosphere too.
Issac Oron and Charles Pierard chats with Lisa Er about the Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a Catalyst for Global Change.
Have you bought into the Puritan work ethic? Do you think everyone should have a job?
What happens as more work is outsourced to underdeveloped ‘cheap’ countries, and in the West increasingly robots do the work? Why not have a “basic income” paid to every individual to cover their basic needs. The governments would pay the same amount of money to each person, regardless of whether they work. A Universal (or Unconditional) Basic Income acknowledges that every individual has the same unconditional right to a basic income, sufficient for them to live in dignity.
Switzerland will vote on whether to introduce the model on June 5, 2016. This has come about by a petition which has been circulating, and enough signatures were collected to insist on a binding referendum. Supporters of the initiative have suggested that each adult would receive 2,500 francs (a whopping $3755.18 New Zealand dollars) a month, with children receiving 625 francs (NZ $938.80) a month until they reach 18. Their idea is to alleviate poverty.
Critics have stated that the model would encourage people to leave the labour market and would fuel a sense of injustice from those who continue to work to support those who choose not to. But can we really provide jobs for all, and do we need to? Apparently 64% of Europeans would vote in favour of a UBI, and only 4% would stop working, according to a poll conducted by German company Dalia Research, in April 2016.
Can we in NZ afford it? Perhaps not at the rate Switzerland is suggesting but do not dismiss the idea yet. We do after all, have a universal basic income operating for super-annuitants!
At the moment most of the debate centres around its affordability, with most people thinking it’s either too good to be true, or too expensive to be good.
There will have to be changes to the tax system and the money creation system. That is for sure, but what is wrong with introducing a financial transaction tax, and a capital gains tax? If the Reserve bank printed more money would it really contribute substantially to inflation – or is that just a story told to us to keep us in debt?
We bumped into Labour MP David Cunliffe at the radio station, just before we did the interview and he mentioned a sum of $50 a week might be appropriate for a UBI. It is great that the Labour Party is considering a UBI, but I would say to that, why bother for only $50. The amount has to be possible to live off to be implemented without social welfare top ups. Introduced fully it will reduce a large amount of unpleasant bureaucracy associated with benefits.
A UBI would be a major change in the way wealth is transferred. It recognises the contribution to society that people who don’t necessarily get paid, like at-home spouses, artists, or volunteers in the community. It gives people more choice so they can, if they wish, quit their job to do training, or go back to tertiary education.
As jobs get more and more automated and outsourced people will inevitably be squeezed into fewer and fewer jobs, many of them poorly paid. Continue this process, and it is obvious that it is completely inequitable and unacceptable that people’s right to have the basics to live by, is in the hands of employers and corporate gate-keepers.zz
In this interview, self described social protagonists Issac and Charles speak not only about a UBI but about how we have bought into the money trap. Money is an imaginary concept and by validating it we make it real.
Issac also tells us how we are far more advanced technologically than in how we treat each other. Society seems to live to get back rather than serve. This advanced technology will eventually bring an end to everyone slaving for the dollar, and allow us time to evaluate our lives and help one another. However, to let that come about we do need a Universal Basic Income.
Approaching 40 years of experience on planet earth, with much passion for people, planet, music and movement, Issac Oron, brings this into the core group of Earth Beat Community, an organisation set up to bring awareness and presence throughout New Zealand and beyond. With vast experience in bringing people together, as a DJ, marketing and food technology in both New Zealand and Israel, this is where those elements take shape from vision to reality through different events that provoke, transform and bring people to be present and then to embrace new experiences. Issac is very passionate about Earth Beat community and sees it as a great opportunity not only to celebrate but also to enrich our lives alongside with our planet. After working and contributing over 15 years in the local music and food industries, now it’s time to make a change and share a space with local communities. “Together we can have unlimited power to do anything we want, anything we dreamed of, and anything we thought was impossible”. http://earthbeatfestival.com/
Charles Pierard was brought up in Hamilton and joined the media as a cadet journalist after he left school. Within a few years he found his voice and went into the Radio New Zealand Community Radio system in the early 80s. After a stint on the ABC in Darwin he returned to join National Radio as Auckland's Managing Producer in 1989, just in time to experience the first of that institution's many ongoing restructurings. He also presented a weekly arts show and a few hundred live concerts on Concert FM. He believes in everyone's right to think for themselves, and is frustrated that so many prefer to follow the imposed authority of the corporate government, church, medicine, media, and money industries.
Here is a brilliant web site on the problems of money and the banking system http://positivemoney.org/
This programme was sponsored by The Awareness Party