“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


http://www.theawarenessparty.com/

This week I have Stephen Grant-Jones in the studio to talk about the relaunch of the www.GreenplanetFM.com website & the merging with www.Ourplanet.org into a dynamic, far-reaching local to global web presence.  

GreenplanetFM is upping it game, it’s jumping its codes to a whole new platform by extending its outreach to as many people as we can who we share breath with.

In doing this, it is merging with Tim’s flagship website Ourplanet.org - which first went up on the world wide web as one of the pioneers of html coding and art work - 20 years ago in 1996.

When first put up it collected a number of awards for both content and aesthetics as well as gleaning hundreds of hits a week every year, whilst sitting ‘in suspense’ waiting to be truly activated - well, this time to accelerate our expansion is now!  

Stephen Grant-Jones started building websites many years ago after being inspired by an interview he heard by David Bowie and was the person who took the GreenplanetFM audios and turned them into podcasts in 2008 with the streaming of the show via our website and iTunes.

What he has learnt during his tenure running a web design agency is an understanding of the different areas of digital marketing and how all the disparate threads can be joined together and optimised, this includes how websites are built incorporating SEO (search engine optimisation), writing copy, email marketing, video, social media, analytics and paid advertising. They all interlink together, into a complete strategy.

In this interview he talks about building a “strong web” and providing value first, educating, inspiring and entertaining, making sure that a website has many interlinking parts with other parts of the web, which is what we’re doing with the relaunch of the two websites into one.

Stephen explains how we’ve built the website using ‘Agile’ and ‘Scrum’ methodology to build the site in ‘Sprints’ or increments.

We talk about the direction that the new site is taking, going ‘mobile-friendly’, some of the functionality to expect and how you can help and be a part of the unfolding platform we’re creating.

By leveraging social media feeds (Facebook and Twitter for example) to draw people’s attention to our website, we can educate, inspire and entertain them with webinars, localised video, podcasts, blogs and news, plus articles - from unique planetary movers and shakers and others on the leading edge of positive change.

Also, every week GreenplanetFM will be on air - broadcasting from Auckland’s sky tower so that anyone who is intuitive to empowering and inspiring their life, can tune into 104.6FM from 8-9am every Thursday.  

We’ve spent over a year on this project so far, with having to organise and coordinate getting 330+ one-hour podcasts from one server to another, and making sure we pay attention to detail to make sure we don’t lose any data and our place in the search engines.

Not to mention the actual design and development of the new website platform, all the specialised coding and building of ‘Web Apps’ that we’ve had to create.

As GreenplanetFM is a voluntary radio program and I don’t have any ‘products’ as such, we’ve had to ‘bootstrap’ or fund it ourselves with our own time, energy and money, so it’s taken some time to pull all the threads together.

We’re down to the last final push to get the site launched and have decided to do some crowdfunding to get it over the line.

Stephen and I will be holding a Webinar (or online presentation) to take you on a journey through what we’re creating and why. You can sign up for it here; www.ourplanet.org/webinar.

We’ve setup a page on PledgeMe http://pldg.me/ourplanet where we’re not just wanting to accept donations, we have some ‘rewards’ that people can choose from.

Join us as we release the first details and the launch date of the new version of our website, ourplanet.org

Stephen has just completed 6 digital marketing courses that cover Website Funnel Conversion, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Paid Traffic Mastery. He is about to complete the Testing & Optimisation and Data & Analytics courses.

He can be contacted through his LinkedIn profile; https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephengrantjones

(Due to Public Concern, this is a Repeat)

Are New Zealand citizens really wanting mass medication in their water supply?

For years health experts have been unable to agree on whether fluoride in the drinking water may be toxic to the developing human brain. Extremely high levels of fluoride are known to cause neurotoxicity in adults, and negative impacts on memory and learning have been reported in rodent studies, but little is known about the substance’s impact on children’s neurodevelopment.

Despite many studies, the Government now appears to be planning to implement mandatory fluoridation to the whole of New Zealand.

Currently, only around 50% of households are on fluoridated water, with only 23 out of 67 local councils still fluoridating, many voicing their growing concerns about fluoridation risks and dangers. In response to more and more councillors and mayors deciding against fluoridation the Government is now taking the decision away from local councils and communities and putting the power into the hands of District Health Boards (DHB), who are under the direct control of central Government.

Auckland Council is not one of the councils supportive of fluoride free. Many residents of Huia and Onehunga are currently up in arms about the addition of fluoride in their areas.

Watercare extended the Waikato Line through Pukekohe westwards to the Franklin townships in 2014. No consultation or notification of fluoridation was made to the residents. So residents of the Franklin Ward townships of Buckland, Patumahoe, Clarks Beach, Waiau Beach and Glenbrook Beach (who receive reticulated water) have been consuming fluoridated water since 2014 without their knowledge, or the legally required consultation

Prof. Paul Connett, PhD, Emeritus Professor from St. Lawrence University USA  is an, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) and its parent organization, the American Environmental Health Studies Project. He tells us of the dangers of fluoride and how he, a scientist, first came to this

In a meta-analysis, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and China Medical University in Shenyang for the first time combined 27 studies and found strong indications that fluoride may adversely affect cognitive development in children.

Based on the findings, the authors say that this risk should not be ignored, and that more research on fluoride’s impact on the developing brain is warranted.

Yet New Zealand Authorities are challenging Councils ability to keep being fluoride free or remove fluoride from the water supply.

And isn’t it a basic human right NOT to be mass medicated, even if some might think they are doing us a favour?
 
When the fluoridation of water began, there was little evidence for its long term safety (as for GMOs) and since then little attempt has been made to monitor its health effects systematically.

Because there are so many unanswered health questions, fluoridation of water must be considered an ongoing experimental procedure, and as such it is a violation of the Nuremberg Code, which forbids experimentation on humans without their informed consent. In Europe, nearly all countries have either never fluoridated their water or have ceased doing so.

Yet the incidence of tooth decay has declined just as much as in those countries that practice fluoridation. This fascinating interview with Dr Paul Connett, will raise alarm bells about many aspects of the mass medication of the population by fluoride and he challenges us to do something about it.

Tooth decay is caused by poverty and a poor diet, not a lack of fluoride
Poverty is one of the biggest predictors of poor dental health. Many people do not realise that they should never put any sweetened drink, or even flavoured milk, into a baby’s bottle. Leaving babies to suck on a bottle is the cause of baby bottle tooth decay (early childhood caries).  This is the main cause of children suffering extreme dental decay and needing tooth extractions, and fluoride will not protect from that.


NOTE: This interview is a repeat but the information is still valid and so is worth a replay.

Join the NZ Nationwide Campaign . We need to stop mandatory fluoridation now! 
www.fluoridefree.org.nz

For 50 reasons to oppose fluoride – go here;
http://www.slweb.org/50reasons.html

This interview is sponsored by The Awareness Party: http://www.theawarenessparty.com/home/fluoride/

Whangarei in the north of NZ is stirring and it’s around ‘community participation’ as a result of a small dedicated team based on collaborative leadership.

Food resilience is one of the important focusses of Transition Towns (TT) as it affects everyone, the poor, middle income and even the rich. We all need high quality food in our body to obtain optimum results. By re­localising their food system, which even here in NZ has been taken over by large corporate players and international supply chains, we have to have plan B.

Fortunately over the last 8 years, Jeff has been in Whangarei holding the space whilst many if not most TT’s have dissipated and/or fallen away. But, in Whangarei people come in and out depending on the issues and they are continually finding situations that galvanise people and engage community and get them involved. Which he warmly finds is contagious. Once you gain the awareness of people who want to find out what they can do, it then becomes all what they can do at a community level.

Especially film evenings when you have 'conscious get togethers'. One of them very recently being 'This Changes Everything' a Naomi Kline movie, assisting in pulling the threads of community together can build up a synergistic momentum.

Jeff mentions Cuba, being a classic example when the Soviet Union dissolved, it left the whole country of Cuba with no oil supplier as well as no chemicals for agriculture.Thus, resulting in the Cubans falling back on their own commitment to self and group responsibility which resulted in a very resilient community in a matter of 4 or 5 years growing into being.

He also sees that, we too in NZ are in transition and when we get community engaged and involved ­ the coming together, the passion and the enthusiasm ­ the commitment and the co­creation that happens ­it's potent and empowering ...

Jeff Griggs states that the principles of the Transition Town (TT) model are very robust, as it contains so many aspects that builds resilience back into community. Including co-opetition, community building and because it was positioning to cover the peak global oil situation, when it was sidelined by full spectrum fraking. This fraking did bring down oil prices, but in the process, in so many cases, destroyed the water pan with chemical pollution causing many unrecorded environment and health problems, like discharging flammable gasses into the water supply that came out through kitchen water taps.

What he now states is the end of cheap oil and we here in NZ, being dependent on oil needs, still exposes us to being vulnerable around oil supply. So going back to the TT model, it is far broader than just fraking and costly oil. This is where organics and permaculture meet, home schooling and holistic healing modalities, alternative currencies such as green dollars and time banks extend into the local economy, as well as a reignited ‘neighbourhood support’ system. Thus the strings of a community extend across many demographics and resilience comes into play.

Jeff thinks that when we pool all these components together there is 'collaborative' leadership and this word is becoming to be more known in the mainstream vernacular. When you get groups of people with common visions sitting down around the table actively listening to one another, looking at possibilities, getting creative in a co creative way ­ the magic and the power that comes from that kind of round table discussion is quite mind blowing! When you compare this polite dialogue and sharing with the antics of NZ’s Parliament or US politics, we need go no further.

Validating collaborative leadership is a new way forward.

Which due to Jeff's experience in local government this is what is missing ­ collaborative leadership.

The challenge now is to convince government and bureaucracy to commit to find ways to embrace collaborative style of being and working ... where you get rid of the win/lose scenarios and also the power struggles and the competition.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller

When you clear the old patterns put these old forms aside and embrace the new all of a sudden when people start engaging in this new way of working, the collective wisdom, the collective knowledge starts to emerge and this is where the leadership starts to come up from the grass roots level.

People practising this experiential learning of collaboration find it’s like the magic ingredient where you get the group together ­ create the space and then you just let it go ... and the outcomes are so powerful ­ its going back to community outcomes, community well­being and health of the environment ­ all this stuff starts to play out.

The passion gets renewed.

This interview covers a lot of C words ...
Co­opetition
Co­operation
Co­creation
Collaboration
Collectives
Community building
Can do ...
Commitment ­ which many people seem unable to do ...

Other words for these times.
Local resilience
Reclaiming
Social enterprise
Self sufficiency
Personal responsibility
Be the change

When in a group situation and people are using this vocabulary ­ you know that you are all on the same page and wavelength.

The Transition Towns model being a very well thought­out model that with 12 parts to it Jeff thinks it is a very well structured system.

One of these unique parts of this TT system, calls for ‘inter generation’ connection and honouring the elders ­ these are all components that consist of building interactive resilience back into communities ­ the coming together ­ the grand fathers/mothers ­ the very young ­ this is known within indigenous populations where is is very much a natural unified field.

One such initiative that happened when listening for the voice of the youth of Whangarei, was that no one was looking for their aspirations, they were not being actively factored into the future so Jeff and a team wrote to the Principles of the five major high schools in the City saying that their TT group was a voice of concerned citizens and they were interested in hearing the voice of the youth of today.

They asked for two students from each school and meet with all five high school representatives to support them in asking them to share their aspirations and get their voices out. So the TT group coached them in being media savvy and how to give presentations etc.

Then Jeff met with them personally for near on two years and they wanted to have a number of things, one being a forum to be able to communicate with government politicians and a youth space where they could come together and support each other along with other smaller objectives, such as tutoring. As a result the feel confident to go in front of the Whangarei Council and they have been acknowledged, listened to ­ and have their own space and received funding for ongoing group consensus etc.

The TT group seeded it, now they have stepped back.

Then the TT group checked out the elders ­ and saw that the women were far more organised and had their social networks, but the men, they were another story. Jeff said that he sees them at the library ­ bring back cartloads of books ­ they were just home reading. Yet, they had so much talent and skills sitting untapped by the community. Having heard about the Man Shed concept in Australia, where the Federal Government actually funds them because they can see the indirect health benefits of keeping the men occupied, because with no outlet the men get depressed, and go onto medication and the downward spiral ... and Jeff and a team decided to do it here in Whangarei where the end product is that there are now 80 men in a shed that happens to be the old Whangarei railwaystation.

This they purchased off the Council for one dollar, they are now restoring it, they are doing projects all over Whangarei for charities and non profits, Salvation Army, hospices, repairing furniture etc This being a total entrepreneurial old group of guys who love being together, love building things and love giving back to the community. They are now bringing in home school kids, women groups, also to learn many differing skills, that it is becoming a community point where everyone comes together to honour this intergenerational connection.

The next step being, to invite in young males who have missed out on connection with fathers and male energy ­ to come hang with these older blokes and learn and laugh and again bring the inter­generation energies together into a more co­creative environment, these older men are ex builders, plumbers electricians etc with a huge resource of skills.

There are now mens shed in Kaitaia, Kerekeri and starting in Ruakaka and they are being donated huge amounts of tools and gear etc. It is overwhelming what is being donated.

Also mentioned in this interview is Barbara Marx Hubbard (whom we both have met) out of Northern California, who talks about "Conscious Evolution" as against, unconscious evolution, which is basically where we are at in this old paradigm that is hemorrhaging and not fulfilling humanities needs or the natural world. http://barbaramarxhubbard.com

Covering; GE Free Northland as championed by the Whangarei Council and the Far North Councils. Plus, honouring Zelka Grammer and her unwavering and dedicated work to keep GE & GMO's out of the North. https://organicnz.org.nz/node/624

Other TT projects are about re localisation. (Do a web search on ‘Localise’ NZ for the various web sites www.localise.nz ) This will give pointers about Relocalising our food and reshaping Northlands food production as well as integrating distribution and and understanding consumption systems.

Because Whangarei and districts have a niche climatic system, available water, rich soils many of them volcanic, the possibilities are huge yet compared to the food grown in Northland 100 years ago very little food is grown today.

Why?

6,000 people go to the Saturday morning Whangarei markets on Saturday morning. Based on the collaborative leadership model it is fundamental to bring in this new paradigm and re educate everyone including the present businesses, the institutions, the economic development people, leaders etc, to see just what is possible.

And ironically, all this Transitional Town dynamism is being done by volunteers, actually just three people ( Just as this radio program is totally voluntary as well) No resources or money other than their own time has gone into this project.

Jeff tells that last year he took 4 months off in 2015 to visit North America to study the local food movement, especially in Vermont, which has quite a counter culture and where Bernie Sanders comes from and they have this ‘localised food movement’ absolutely sussed. The Book called ‘The Town that Food Saved.’ Based around an organisation called ‘The centre for an agricultural economy.’ www.hardwickagriculture.org/ It's a social enterprise, is very entreprenurial and is self supporting.

Kaitiakitanga means guardianship and protection. Rahui and regenerating fish stocks. Northland being a GE and GMO Free Zone and Auckland City being the gate keeper to keep such materials out from the north.

The very high price that organic dairy farmers are getting for milk powder emphatically states that there is a world market for top quality healthy products. 5 times the price of conventional dairy prices. Covering a huge array of subject matter from Morgan Williams the ex Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and how strong and forthright he was when taking that post.

That today, the NZ Government and ‘business as usual’ have corrupted and abused the word sustainability and deleted it from any ecological context, but use it to sustain the ongoing plunder of our planets resources, people and future.

The semantics of sustainability."if it is good for the environment and good for the people and good for the economy then you are well on track to be sustainable" Morgan Williams. It is the life supporting capacity of our planet that has got to be the main criteria for us in supporting the biosphere.

Progress indicators GDP and the measuring of gross domestic product Dr Ron Coleman who was invited by Dave Breuer of AnewNZ and who had Michael Cullen’s ear, ( The Minister of Finance for the previous Labour administration.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine_progress_indicator

The game is to replace the system with one that is going to work for our common future and environment, people and economy basically in that order.

In fact "it is not a revolution it's a paradigm shift" ­ from the grass roots up.

And more and more people are twigging to it, as they tire of the same frenetic diet of homogenous unconscious drivel spewed out via the MSM and when they see the possibilities of TT’s bountiful expression and the garden of delight ­ it awakens them to their real self and their connections to self and the greater community.

Neo Liberalism has been totally embraced by the NZ National Party and it is not serving the country as whole.

Food for Life in Whangarei is based in giving food to school children in low decile schools = 1200 meals per week.

Stopping food waste, at super market is something that is being looked at.\

USA Hospitals have an initiative called "farm to hospital" so as to get fresh food into hospitals from local sources. rodaleinstitute.org/farmtohospital/ and www.farmtoinstitution.org/

‘Sew good’ Where Whangarei women engage in teaching and sewing in a community workshop space. http://www.sewgood.org.nz

Whangarei, is maybe becoming a cellular nucleus or mothership to not only the localised area but for supporting new community collaborative initiatives in outer lying towns within the Northland region.

This is a wonderful interview that will warm your bones and get you excited. I apologise for this poorly written summary, there are only a certain number of hours in the day.(Tim)

http://www.transitionwhangarei.org Newsletter @
info@transitionwhangarei.org.nz

The 2016 New Zealand Organic Market Report.

Organic produce sales have increased 11% per annum across the country, as New Zealanders are becoming more mindful as to what they are putting in their mouths and swallowing.

This interview covers the era (and error) of the 1st World War where newly concocted chemicals were introduced in armaments etc, that were seen to also have an effect in seemingly speeding up growth in plants.

This onslaught continued into synthetic chemicals and the challenges we have today with industrialised factory farming becoming intoxicated from pesticides and herbicides.

That then turned into industrial agriculture - a particular ‘culture’ (not really farming) and now we are coming to the end of this industrial age plus its ‘so-called’ mythology.

Pesticide and (herbicide) use is everywhere in our civil society, our road and parks management, in conservation and agriculture, and it begs the question:– Are we going to continue to poison our environment, our soil, our food, (that means spray poisons directly onto food), then eat it?

Is this going to be our normal practice, now and into the future? Any sane person has to say, NO I do not think so! This does not make sense!

Thus NZ society is waking up to the realisation we have to clean up our act and quickly.

Few people are aware that the NZ organic movement has been in existence for 75 years and it was on the 7th April this year that Organics NZ celebrated their anniversary in Parliament, in the ‘grand hall’ - sponsored by a pan party Primary Production Select Committee, –where this event actually garnered some media attention. That Parliament was open to this Organic presentation showed that change is coming to the halls of power as a result of decades of honest toil and work by the organic producers sector.

So in the words of Brendan, organics is going “gangbusters” and if we discipline ourselves this sector can grow quickly with huge benefits to people, the country, our health, to the ecology, longevity and our children’s future.

Organics in NZ grew from 2008-2010 by 8% per year –and from 2012 -2015 it is up to 11%, with plenty of room to expand.

Not only that there is more awareness in general, but people are becoming more conscious of what is happening to their food. People are wanting to make a deeper connection to their food source and one of them is ‘through ’certified organic’ products’

The Market Report for Organics Aotearoa NZ that was produced, was sponsored by New World and Countdown, Ceres, Fresh Direct and Vespry. Here is mainstream NZ in behind this report saying this is the way to go.  Though Brendan tempers this by telling us that instead of using the organics slogan “We are the answer”, to now saying “We have solutions”. Very real solutions.

Today, Fonterra’s organic milk powder has a value 5 times more than conventional milk powder. This should be an eye opener to NZ dairy farmers! Especially, in a fickle and topsy-turvy world market.

So who is it buying organic products? It’’s Generation Y, born in the 1980s and 1990s, comprising primarily the children of the baby boomers. They want authentic foods and are prepared to pay for it.

Buy Pure New Zealand - why?
Because the world wants what we are growing here, isolated away from the big industrial polluted northern hemisphere.

The big question being, are we prepared to listen to what people want and deliver that back to them in the way that they want it?

The market report is positive and there is a ground swell heading our way.

This interview covers:

How do young NZ people get back on to the land?

What does it mean to identify with place and merge with your land and farm, developing one's intuition, and being at one with the elements, knowing that you are gifting from the soil the highest quality food that retains its life force.

Using appropriate technology and knowledge to be at the forefront of land management. That we can have healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people and are delivering on biodiversity and ecology.

That NZ becomes the biological - ecological producer of nutrient dense organic food for the world.

The new way forward is based more on relationships from –the farmer, to the customer who is the consumer.

The 3 organic keywords are ‘growth, celebrating diversity and confidence’– because Organics Aotearoa see that this is achievable.

Note, that contrary to mainstream media’s message, most food in the world is grown through gardening and not through farming. This is provable.

Having your children work in the garden, do chores etc. Letting them understand the connection that plants grow in fertile soils to produce tomatoes and corn, that eggs come from chooks etc.
That when children spend quality time in the garden they embed themselves in connection to natural systems that is very real - it’s not a fantasy, it’s not a TV show or an iPad game.

Organic standards, what are they in NZ? – Bio Grow being the leading certification agency.

Today Countdown and New World have 77% of organic retail sales across NZ. Countdown has its own organic house brand.

Brendan tells the story of 500 hundred year old trees in the Ureweras here in NZ giving honey to Koreans –but, they don’t see it as ‘just honey’ they see it as medicine from an elder, one that is 500 years old.

When it comes to organic food production and land use the best results by far is when you are inclusive and participative. That your dealings are open and clear and when we involve ourselves in this intent, it becomes a relentless pursuit and endeavour to bring NZ land management, health and wellbeing - into fruition.

Managing continuous 11% growth needs very focused attention and nurturing where you can not take short cuts. Organics engenders integrity of being and of effort.
 
Now we in NZ need top down assistance, –we have done decades of bottom up grass roots work, now we need support from government to shift the energy for the whole country.

11% each year  - it is happening! It may be an intergenerational shift, but it may come faster. If we get some major support from a ‘conscious’ NZ government - magic could happen.

Now we need some enlightened policy, some regulation, and it can not be political.

This is what is best for New Zealand and ultimately, our planet.

http://www.oanz.org

WHAT IS THE EARTH CHARTER?

The Earth Charter is an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society during this 21st century.

It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action.

The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, and endorsed by organizations representing millions of people, the Charter "seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family, the greater community of life, and future generations." It calls upon humanity to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history. The Earth Charter's ethical vision proposes that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human development, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. The Charter attempts to provide a new framework for thinking about and addressing these issues.

How do we integrate world citizens into a grassroots movement to bring this into being? Can the people of the Earth promote this idea so as to not lose power to the overriding corporate global resource grab that is ubiquitous and increasing?

With the TPPA the Transpacific Partnership Agreement and the TTIP Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership being foisted upon many countries in their respective regions, is the  Earth Charter robust enough to ensure that humanity will be able to have a just and fair future?

We are now also deeply embedded in an era of the Security State of Global Proportions how is this going to affect the Charter?   

As we near 2020, we are seeing that the Charter may need some revising and that we as a humanity have to go beyond ecological sustainability and repurpose how we respond to the rapidly increasing ecological, economic and societal challenges that are all presently converging.

Regeneration of the environment has to be a priority of the highest order, as well as looking deeply at the particulates in the air, water and food chain. With geoengineering being played with, what are the repercussions in our fast altering world, where democracy is now being seen as becoming very poorly represented and even problematic? (the two party electoral system in the USA and the UK) Whilst big world media becomes more omnipresent, globally yet concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

Environmental Modification Convention  

There is a need to give more teeth to enforce the rule of law on countries that break these conventions, especially ENMOD.  

The Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD), formally the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques is an international treaty prohibiting the military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects. It opened for signature on 18 May 1977 in Geneva and entered into force on 5 October 1978.

The Convention bans weather warfare, which is the use of weather modification techniques for the purposes of inducing damage or destruction. The Convention on Biological Diversity of 2010 would also ban some forms of weather modification or geoengineering.

Yes, we definitely need regulation to stop unbridled degradation of the earth’s resources, because as most people know the corporate world’s only aim is to make a profit for shareholders. With corporate ‘responsibility’ seen with increasing suspicion we need to have this discussion of how we justly care for the 7.5 billion human inhabitants and the future of our biosphere especially children of today and tomorrow.     

This is a repeat of an interview broadcast in 2006 and no doubt this important subject needs to be addressed far more in the public arena - now - 10 years after broadcast.

http://earthcharter.org

Time Banks, Green Dollars, Savings Pools   

The interview initially starts with latest topics of Universal basic income, Bitcoin and crypto currencies and that people are awakening to the fact that central bankers don’t have a clue as to solve this ongoing and deteriorating crisis.

In NZ the situation today looks pretty good to the casual observer - listen to MSM and government sources and we are in a stable and robust moderately growing economy - everything is quite good, some of our major trading partners are experiencing some head winds but … ‘she’ll be right.’   If you rule out the dairy shock of the last 14 months and take out the Auckland property bubble but don’t worry about those little wobbles, we as a country are doing just fine!

What this means that we in NZ are going to be following most of the rest of the world into 'debt deflation' which over the coming years is going to take hold with a greater severity.

We have been a lucky country and managed to come through the recent (GFC) Global Financial Crash of 2008 along with Australia and NZ being almost alone in the world because we had many trade ties to China and we did not get hammered like other countries  - Australian minerals and NZ dairy were doing very well. China being the last big bubble to implode and it looks like it is going to do so now as well - this is big news, for if China starts to deflate, the rest of the world has nowhere to go … who is going to prop up all the bubbles and asset prices?  It appears that there is soon going to be a rush to get out of all the equities markets. As this has all been built on debt finance and short sighted policies.

 Most small cities in NZ can do a certain amount of business locally, so that what is produced locally and the money that changes hands, gets recycled through the commercial areas of that town and district. however when it comes to big ticket items, money and goods or materials they may come from a larger more distant source, the money that goes around in a smaller isolated town or city, has a tendency to quickly go back out of town, sometimes very rapidly, hence keeping the area less financial and liquid.

If you have a local currency, like time banks this can cycle through the localised area continuously supporting local community and business, however if you have a national currency it comes and then leaves and if there is a head office overseas, the money actually leaves the country. For example the near on $5 billion in profit from the large Australian trading banks, and the 4.7 million NZ population, gives one cause to realise how much money leaves NZ for other countries.

At present local and regional government are becoming interested in embracing forms of alternative currencies (listen to the interview for more)

Covering the immediacy of putting in a Time Bank, you get the community engaged, working, and creating value and worth.  

Time Banks are able to work in very well with voluntary agencies and there are a number of them in NZ and growing from strength to strength.

Project Lyttlelton http://www.lyttelton.net.nz as a time bank example, has become the glue of the community that as they had been established prior to the Christchurch earthquake it was through their tightly associated team and connectivity, that they were able to mobilise within minutes of the earthquake, have people on the ground and assisting hugely with civil defence, police, ambulances and the fire department and council.

 Phil also gives a narrative as to how a time bank can be set up. Once you set up with freely available software and you have your team of early adopters you can branch out. Plus, get some of your charitable and non profit organisations onboard early because you can also assist these NGO’s donating ‘numbers of hours’ to them, which means that you can assist them with additional help, because of ‘serial volunteers' - people who like to work and donate their time and effort to the community. These people love to work for community and they are just living their values. This way Time Banks can put their ‘accumulative time’ into a ‘community chest’ which can be called upon and used by various charities etc. But also in a simple situation of a hairdresser swapping hours for their lawns to be mowed or gardening for house painting. Tuition for baby sitting etc.

That Christchurch City at present is looking at the possibility of a council backed regional currency - which is a very interesting concept. Margaret Jeffries is even talking about a UBI Universal Basic Income being included in this discussion.

Software used is called Community Weaver by Time Banks USA   http://timebanks.org/get-started/community-weaver/

Also, Community Forge - Hamlets           
http://communityforge.net/en/software

Note that the whole of NSW in Australia are on a Community Forge system.

Madison in Dane County is a time bank in Wisconsin USA and has over 2000 members  at http://danecountytimebank.org

The founder of Time banks was Edgar S Cahn who was an invalid, yet he could still think and do simple tasks and he set out to create a time bank, because he did not like being seen as in-valid!

https://www.bostonfed.org/commdev/c&b/2005/fall/nonmonetary.pdf

We also cover Professor Thomas Greco who is presently in Greece to educate and assist in creating alternative currencies as Greece’s economy has floundered. That the imposed austerity exacerbates the problem that it is claiming to fix, because the people at the lower socio economic spectrum are the ones who suffer the most because all their money is spent keeping themselves from going under. So austerity starves the economy of liquidity thus you restrict economic activity.  Time banks and ‘Green drachma’s’ can really pull the strings of community together and get an economy up and running very quickly and bring more stability and peace to the community.    thgreco@mindspring.com for more information.

Phil says that it’s a good idea to have a back up and have a connection to a time banks or some other localised currency system - because you never know when you may need one.

http://www.le.org.nz

A very interesting interview, with one or two seconds of scratchy recording due to a chronic limitation in the use of copper wires in NZ’s telecom system.

Why is this government touting the TPPA, a complex and convoluted path to achieve a $2.7 billion by 2030?  In 2015, over $4.5 billion was earned by our four big Australian banks alone which was a 30% increase in returns over a 7 year period. Our country's sovereignty and democracy is about to be lost for such little gain from the TPPA, particularly compared to corporate profit levels.

Since the TPP’s signing on the 4th February the government is steaming ahead with ratification, first reviewing the TPP agreement and the National Interest Analysis (NIA) through the present Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (FADT) Select Committee process.

Over 3000 New Zealanders have provided the government with their views and evidence, at hearings in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, with more through the remainder of April in Wellington. The report from the FADT committee is due before the Parliament in May. If approved the Minister Todd MacClay will introduce enabling legislation to the House which will amend our New Zealand domestic legislation where it is inconsistent with the TPP treaty arrangements agreed by the 12 parties.

Greg Rzesniowiecki, aka Gregfullmoon, has evolved to fill the role of public advocate specifically on behalf of the public interest concerning the TPP. Born in Australia, and having worked in engineering and as a union organiser, Greg moved to Motueka where he was a member of the Renewables a local climate action group. He quickly came to realise that TPP would make government’s ability to regulate for carbon emission reductions problematic.

It was local government in the form of Auckland Council which gave a lead in the struggle with TPP. In December 2012, the Auckland Council adopted a comprehensive 12 point policy in respect to the TPP. This policy has now been adopted by 12 New Zealand Territorial Authorities who in their territories represent 60% of the NZ population. Greg was involved in supporting that effort.

Greg has also been supportive of local TPP Action groups when planning their rallies and actions, assisting in Nelson, Wellington and Hamilton on various occasions.

Greg says we will have several more opportunities to voice our disapproval in the remainder of the year, however if we want to ensure that New Zealand does not ratify the TPP we need to make sure that the Government does not have the numbers in the house for the TPP and its enabling legislation. This means pressuring local MPs and members of the smaller parties such as Peter Dunne.


Activists also are continuing to promote the call for a binding referendum on the TPP prior to final assent. Greg was central in petitioning the Governor General to ask him to demand that the Prime Minister puts the question of the TPP to the people, otherwise the Governor General will refuse to give the legislation the final assent which requires the Governor General’s signature.

For more information on the TPPA See this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwqMp1ykbW8 or go to http://itsourfuture.org.nz/

For more information about New Zealand’s already eroding sovereignty, go to http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/cafca-standfor.html

This interview was sponsored by The Awareness Party http://www.theawarenessparty.com/

Permaculture is a designed science system that is the most innovative planetary method available - of pulling all the disparate forces of nature together in a harmonious movement to live within the seasonal flow of the web of life.

Geoff is continually invited to go to many countries from very developed, to others that are environmentally distressed and now, situations of conflict where he finds himself putting both conflict and environmental circumstances back together - in a sustainable form. Even looking towards establishing eco city developments and eco villages as examples, as the permaculture design system covers all climates, all landscapes and virtually all contingencies.

Permaculture to him is essentially a journey of discovery through a career of assisting people towards embedding sustainable knowingness – which has been taught as a subject since 1979 - to over 15,000 students and NZ too has a number of superb students now fully trained as experienced teachers, many working globally as leaders in their field.

There is also a growing awareness that we need to be resilient and self-reliant and though not seen out in the public realm, behind the scenes there are many people who have a feel for the land, and see themselves asking the question how does a human being live on a planet and in community and sustainably.

That the word ‘sustainability’ is today used in every global aid proposal - where conversely when the Clark Labour Government administration here in NZ left power, it is alleged that the new National Government administration passed a memo to all governmental departmental heads, asking them to not use the word sustainability in any ecological or environmental context.

We have empathy. We walk in the shoes of others and care how we affect the world around us.

We have open minds. We value creativity and collaboration when solving problems.

We trust our people. We back people to achieve the remarkable.

We are future focused. Through our actions and behaviour we aim to leave the world in a better place.

The above is what Justin feels is a crucial part of how our future is created – that in a business sense the values are brought to the fore to just remind all the players within the business and around the business, of what we are there for and how we support each other and how we work together to enable better outcomes.

Justin see values as a pivotal issue as he sees our societal values are changing at a deep level and he feels it is quite problematic and is something that has to be addressed so the business is leading the way as they spend a lot of time at work.

Dr Mike Joy, NZ’s most high profile & prolific ecological voice for the waterways and ecology. How his valued insights has him consulting for LandCorp the NZ Government’s holdings that involve 127 properties, close to 1 million acres of land, and 1.6 million animals that need to be environmentally stewarded.

Mike says that the big challenge for NZ farms, especially dairy is through the increasing application of both nitrogen and phosphorus. That in assisting in quadrupling farm production in the last 25 years - that has benefitted the rural sector and the country as a whole, the downside is immense. As these leach out of the soil and into waterways where they feed nuisance plant and algae growth throughout our river and lakes. Also, that we are facing a critical problem with cadmium that is found in the phosphates that are mined overseas and imported into NZ.

We need a whole lot of frontline activists working to challenge this failing neoliberal system that we reside under, where the corporations are taking control, and democracy is likely to die, and where the government fails to listen to the people!

It is possible for brave individuals to make a difference. In this interview Icelandic protest leader Hordur Torfason speaks of what makes an activist, by relating his own experience. First he talks about his gay rights activism, and then onto the Iceland Revolution, of which he was the major initiator. Importantly, he allowed other people to do their own thing, and did not insist that everyone worked with him. This allowed other leaders to express themselves and come to the fore and the movement grew.

We live on a planet of majestic proportions, teaming with life within a biosphere of mega-trillions of beings.

From the microscopic and invisible to the macro-captivating mega fauna, from viruses and bacteria to the great blue whales and kauri and redwoods. To the council of all beings - all breathing in concert and growing and surviving within the seasonal cycles of a fecund yet increasingly stressed mother planet.

However - what of the future, where are we going as a human species? What is the destiny of our planet in these rapidly changing of times? And who best can speak to these challenges, other than the races and cultures who have held onto the old ways - the indigenous, the first nations - the ones who keep the soles of their feet firmly planted on the surface of the great mother, Gaia, Papatuanuku, our profound sustainer.

Listen to an inspiring introduction to what this weekend will share. This engaging discussion with representatives of this forthcoming event is persuasive and captivating. Knowing that there are devoted people, 'being the change we want to see in the world' is heartening. Let's support them by furthering this notion as we mobilise to care for our individual and collective future - for all biota.

Kevin Toomey a Catholic and Daud Azimullah a Moslem of the Auckland Inter Faith Council talk about the benefits and challenges of bringing the ‘interfaith community’ together including all the various strands of the humanity into one unified global family that lives in peace and prosperity.

Their aim is to promote interfaith cooperation around shared religious values to strengthen the public’s commitment to the values of civic participation, freedom of religion, diversity, and civility in public discourse and to encourage the active involvement of people of faith in every countries political life.

Jeff Phillips originally from the USA studied physics as he wanted to be an astronomer, then switched over to zoology and psychology after being inspired by Dr. John C Lilly and his work with cetacean consciousness where he was invited to California to swim with the dolphins.

The word ‘Civilized’ by definition means to live in cities and includes everything associated and linked to living in tightly organised, structureds, law making, stratified and hierarchical systems.

Jeff goes on to describe the differences between indigenous living and civilisation especially with the extractive economy to that of the consumptive economy where mining, from iron, to diamonds, to gold and coal and to today’s big baddie ­- uranium. It was either the people for the earth or the people against the earth. The indigenous not owning the land but instead being custodians.

The Resource Management Act (RMA) passed in 1991 in New Zealand at times, controversial Act of Parliament. The RMA promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources such as land, air and water. New Zealand's Ministry for the Environment describes the RMA as New Zealand's principal legislation for environmental management.

As the RMA and the decisions made under it by district and regional councils and in courts affect both individuals and businesses in large numbers, the RMA has variously been attacked for being ineffective in managing adverse environmental effects, or overly time-consuming and expensive and concerned with bureaucratic restrictions on legitimate economic activities.

Dr Mels Barton and Sean Freeman speak about the impact of the recent changes to the RMA

Should central government be able to control decisions made by local government? This seems to be the approach of our current government thus undermining local democracy, generally in favour of business interests. One could ask if the RMA is being turned into an economic development act! Changes to the RMA certainly won't build more homes. 

The changes to the RMA from 2009 to 2013 have restricted the ability of local government to protect trees on urban allotments to those trees that have been listed on a scheduled list. In Auckland whilst there is some protection for vegetation that is located within sensitive areas such as riparian margins, coastal cliffs and Significant Ecological Areas (SEA’s) such sensitive areas, are not commonly found within our city's boundary. The current Scheduled List of Notable trees amounts to approximately 6000 trees which is less than 15% of our remarkable urban forest. For the remaining trees on private property there is effectively no protection. 

Trees have a unique place in our environment. Without them, human life as we know it would not exist. Trees conserve water, make our air breathable, absorb air pollution, support our slopes and form the hub of enormous underground micro-environments that strengthen soil and foster insect life. In a city trees take up a lot of storm water that otherwise may cause flooding.

At a time when we all know the scale of the predicted intensification of building across our city, we have lost the ability to effectively protect our urban forest from property developers. We have lost the ability to protect those living assets which make our city a liveable place.

The country is divided as it hasn’t been since the South African Springbok tour in 1981. And probably along somewhat similar lines. This time it is over a complex international treaty – the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, TPPA (often referred to as the TPP). The negotiations were kept secret for six years, and for good reasons. Analysis of the final agreement shows that the TPPA is not in our interests. Beyond the spin and myths, there are three hard truths about the impacts of the TPPA on New Zealand.

Reclaiming our country NZ - a call to family and community values of goodwill cooperation & ecological mindfulness.   

David Ford, in his own language:

I’m not fond of "blunt language" AND I reckon WE the Royal WE have got to collectively stand up & demand a total course correction to the Human race. If we really want to "save OURSELVES";  I reckon all we have to collectively do is to STOP PARTICIPATING ~ STOP CON~ SUMING ~ and start RE~CREATING & playing (without consuming! ) more.

WE collectively have PILLAGED our MOTHER PLANET ~ therefore WE can COLLECTIVELY HEAL HER. It's pretty SIMPLE.

David Ford describes himself as a simple South Island, NZ farm boy (& ex Red neck National party man) who went on a 3 year OE that has morphed into 42 years as a proud GLOBAL CITIZEN AMBASSADOR for New Zealand's core values of kindness, peace seeking, generosity & can do co-operation.

At the Paris Conference of the Parties - COP21 - almost 200 nations agreed to reduce greenhouse gases to levels yielding no more than 1.5 to 2.0 degrees of warming.

Scientists are convinced that anything above the 2 degree mark locks in changes to the planetary climate beyond civilization's adaptive capacity.

For some climate activists, like Gary Cranston, the accord was an exercise in empty, feel-good promise making. For example, a group of climate scientists recently submitted a letter to The Independent calling the agreement "false hope" and full of "deadly flaws." They cited the fact that the CO2 reduction commitments in the agreement don't kick in until 2020. By that time, the scientists argue, so much more CO2 will have been pumped into the atmosphere that we may already be locked into warming, pushing us above the 2 degree line.