They have set sail on a 17 thousand k journey from San Fran to Sydney, currently 69 days through and well into the Polynesian Islands.  Go Well.

Check it out. Care of the NY Times.  Check the main Plastiki website here.

Let us take a look at city life, the frantic rush and bustle on the streets, all that traffic and factories with all their pollution, noise and waste, and cynical exploitation by big business. And where are you? In the midst of the frenzied grime, paying high rent or struggling to cope with mortgage payments. Food and heating costs have rocketed, and we know they can only go up. You are working as many hours as you can to pay for city life, with little time for leisure, even less time to get to know your children, or to spend a few days with friends. Altogether it’s a vicious circle, a struggle for survival, with no time to think and be oneself. No wonder that crime is on the increase and mental institutions are overcrowded. If you haven’t fallen victim to one of these social ills, then you could be facing a coronary in your efforts to maintain the pace.

We are using up our natural resources at an ever increasing rate and they are not going to last for ever. In fact we are abusing our planet woefully. Mother earth will not tolerate this continued rape, and is groaning under the burden of unenlightened man. Consider this and ask yourself, “Is this a natural way of life, is this how we were meant to live?” In all truth we have entered a depression, and are fast reaching a stage, not only of economic collapse, but a point where our very survival is threatened. Now, more than ever before, there is a need and a growing desire for people to learn to live outside the collapsing economic and social system, with its greed and avarice, and it’s denial of individuality. .^[32]“

This quote is by one Peter Terry. one of the main organizers of the legendary (although I’d never heard of them) Nambassa Festivals in the 1970s, and early 80s in NZ.  This quote above is from the 1976-77 Nambassa Newsletter, and its astounding how it can be 30 years old and read like it was written yesterday.  I don’t know if this means it shows a remarkable vision for the future, or just proves that cliches never die.

These festivals were huge even by modern standards, the three-day festival in 1979 near Waihai attracted 75,000 people, making it bigger than today’s Big Day Out.  I’ve been spending a fair amount of mental energy lately trying to work out what it is about our generation that makes us unable to gather the same sense of urgency and fun with our politics.  Whatever environmental and political issues they were arguing about then seem only worse now.  Its quite astounding that the on one hand the political and technological posturing of the Hippie movement has proven to be highly accurate and the apparent radical gestures of the 70s are now becoming mainstream, (think power generation and design),  and on the other the cultural cynicism of the movement that grew in the 80s, which was really a cynicism of fashion, has erased the cultural space to appreciate the importance of these movements.

Have a look at the Nambassa info on wikipedia, and keep an eye out for a new website been made for Nambassa with all the old archival material.

All photos care of Nambassa Trust and Peter Terry

www.nambassa.com

1. A word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. For example: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
2. A segment of double-stranded DNA in which the nucleotide sequence of one strand reads in reverse order to that of the complementary strand.

The dictionary definition aligning  language with DNA makes for a convenient metaphor. Words are after all much like the building blocks of our whole whatchamacallit matrix.

In the video below, the words make the opposite of a palindrome. Instead of reading the same  both forwards and backwards, the message is the exact opposite when read in reverse, reclaiming the pessimistic view that there’s just no hope in our generation. It’s likely to warm the cockles of your heart.

The video has been youtube’s version of an Avatar blockbuster. It was made for a competition with AARP – American Association of Retired Persons – that strange “NGO”/insurance provider for people over 50. Even stranger, it was inspired by this political advertisement from Argentina.

All this word magic makes me think of policies, constitutions, law, all those language based institutions we’ve built to create order in our world. And since I did just watch Avatar (and officially want to move to Pandora), and have spent the past couple of months keeping up with the politics of a carbon credit initiative known as REDD – reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (in developing countries) -  I can’t help but think back to this comment from reddmonitor.org that served as my own little reminder about the big black hole between language and reality.

Chris Lang, who runs the site, wrote an article titled “US Sabotages Draft REDD Text” with a link to the draft about REDD from COP15. A reader left a comment calling him a “negative nelly” and pointing out that the draft is full of references to the “inclusion of indigenous people” in the REDD schemes. But once you start dissecting the word “inclusion” you quickly find little more than letters. And what does indigenous mean anymore anyway? Hm hm hmmm. Apparently it’s all a matter of tense. And check out how “respect” is distanced by “[promote][and][support],” those convenient champion words:

“Yes, Indigenous Peoples are mentioned in the REDD text. But Indigenous People are asking for a lot more than their “inclusion”. There is nothing in the text guaranteeing that their rights will not be abused. Instead, the text states that governments “should” [promote] [and] [support] “Respect for the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples and members of local communities”. The Indigenous Environmental Network described the REDD text as “a slap in the face of indigenous peoples”.

True, the text about conversion of natural forests is in the text. But, like the text on Indigenous Peoples it is safely behind the word “should”, thus providing a certain amount of wiggle room that would not be there if the word “should” was replaced by the word “shall.”

*See the draft here for an example of language and grammar stretched beyond their limits.

We are very lucky to have a Guest Post from Wade Doak, Wade has published numerous books on his great passion, the underwater world. He has also worked on the television natural history series ‘Wild South’ and ‘Deep Blue’. His titles include Beneath New Zealand Seas (1971), Encounters with Whales and Dolphins (1988), and his diving autobiography, Ocean Planet (1989). Most of Doak’s books are lavishly illustrated with his own photographs.  Please go to www.wadedoak.com for more information.

Jan and I made a trip to the Poor Knights last Monday: a weird day of mists, dense sea fog and scorching sunshine. Although it was howling from the norwest, El Tigre found a series of flat calm anchorages on the east side. And I thought I did not need to take my hat.

We had guests from Canada and Oz who had booked with Dive! Tutukaka and when I inquired when they were due back in port in order to meet them, we were invited to join them for the day.

As has always been our experience on these modern dive boats, the staff are just so utterly exceptional; so obliging to all on board.  Sam, the skipper, did a fantastic job explaining Poor Knights history and what was to be expected at each dive site and with overseas visitors on board, he made us very proud to be kiwis. I was impressed with the hands on, fine tuned details he gave, such as the packhorse crays crawling in the open and the eight lounging stingrays the crew had seen at Frazer’s Landing a few days before. These days people are helped as if on a flight in the first class cabin by all those young folk in the crew.  But running a safe and enjoyable dive operation for so many people is a damned sight harder than caring for a bunch of airline passengers.  Our guests were elderly and received superb attention. For Ling, the Chinese lady, her dearest dream was to go into the vastness of Rikoriko Cave. Despite the jobbly N.W. situation, El Tigre fulfilled that and dozens of cameras clicked, capturing frames of that dream. For a woman in her mid-seventies, taking a kayak trip under those immense towering cliffs just north of Hope Point, helped by dive guide Kieran so sweetly and unobtrusively, was a high.  He even gave her a tow with his kayak on the way back and Sam hauled her aboard with immense strength: clean and jerk. I guess he has done that before.

As we cruised in from the east towards the tunnel through Aorangaia with its window into South Harbour, first comers to the Poor Knights voice admiration and then rising amazement: “We’re going right through!’ I have often thought how much more the Knights offer the public in terms of awesome spectacle than the Bay of Islands and its single tunnel through Piercy Island.

We were bowled over at seeing silvery snapper schooling in the great Southern Archway, on the surface alongside, but just ahead of, electric blue maomaos; something special that the no-take reserve has enabled. We never saw that in the past. They were herding tiny pink euphausid shrimps or krill up against the wall where there was no escape. Nearby in South Harbour masses of trevally had schools of shrimp under similar attack, assisted by shearwaters and gulls, which need the fish herders to obtain dinner. And the canopy of red pohutukawas on the island slopes was testimony to the cycle whereby fish and nesting sea birds provide nutrients to a lush rain forest.

Sam told us that the newcomer to the Knights: the tropical cleaner shrimp called the saron shrimp, a really fancy creature, is now living at almost all dive sites. But it is usually pretty hard to see, inhabiting dark, narrow crevices. I once filmed one cleaning a grey moray near Blue Maomao Arch. With their boldly striped legs they do a weird dance from side to side to attract customers to their nit removal services. A bit like street buskers. Sam told me that one had tried to clean his fingernails! The other species of cleaner, the red and white striped coral shrimp, has been known to clean diver’s teeth!

Another of Sam’s stories made my old eyes bug: he has seen the exotic and lovely Lord Howe coral fishes in some sort of mating duel: a trio of golden yellow and jet black, tall-finned angelfishes: one to the side [the girl?]; and a pair close by in a tail-to head rotating fury after which the dominant one bunted the other against the cliff with its protuberant beak-like mouth. Not altogether angelic. P- of and leave her to ME!

Sam also told us that scientists have recently been studying the rare geckoes and skinks in the island forests. To their utter surprise they found one of their study animals, the egg-laying skink, escaped them by taking refuge in a tide-pool, diving below and hiding. I recalled earlier research discovering how crabs come up out of the sea at night and feed on flax snails topside. So we are learning more and more how each world supports the other.

Today Jan and I feel really buoyed up; knowing one part of this poor old planet is really doing well. It convinces us humans can make a difference. Forgive me for raving on but that is what the trip has induced in us old knight timers.

]]> http://www.projectfreerange.com/2009/12/17/guest-post-poor-knights-reserve-revisited-by-wade-doak/feed/ 0 http://www.projectfreerange.com/2009/02/12/stark-reminder/ http://www.projectfreerange.com/2009/02/12/stark-reminder/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:37:52 +0000 Barnaby http://freerange.editkid.com/2009/02/12/stark-reminder/ We should mostly be aware of the importance of the time we exist in, and how the next few years ahead of us are critical in dealing with  the various economic and environmental threats we face.  It is however important to remind ourselves of the nature of these threats.  This is a very well elaborated talk from Jeremy Rifkin.  Don’t let his slightly annoying delivery get in the way of the importance of what his is discussing. Quite inspirational.

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