Discoveries

July 19, 2008 at 8:39 am (philosophy)
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“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

This quote came through today as the ‘Gratefulness Quote’, and it resonated with me. I often am accompanied on my walks about the nearby land by the dog, the horse and a cat or two. They are great company, and their playful antics with one another cause me to laugh often.

More than this though, they help me to find the ‘new eyes’. Just last week we all went walking over an area I have ridden over before, but not traversed on foot. It was a completely different experience. The horse was most inquisitive, alert and appeared to be enjoying herself immensely. She would trot on ahead to investigate, then return to me, and then be away again, often with the dog at her side. She is very careful of him, and despite the massive difference in their sizes they play together. Frank the cat is my shadow, never far from my side.

With these as my companions, I am alerted to the subtle nuances in the landscape which on my own, I may often miss.

My camera is more often with me than previously, as the flame of an old interest is ignited. This means that I am viewing the world frequently through the lens of the camera, or thinking whether the scene would make a good shot or not.

Finally, as the season moves on there are changes in the vegetation; it is greener, and blooms are beginning to appear in places. So there is the added interest of finding new flowers or grasses.

All these ways help me to find the ‘new eyes’. For this I am most grateful.

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When the chill wind blows

July 12, 2008 at 2:20 am (comfort, philosophy)
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For many days recently, a chill wind has been blowing. Yesterday was a day of reprieve, of a day to get washing of clothes done, and firewood collected. There were even a few moments of exposing the arms to the sunlight, before the chill descended again. But the reprieve was short lived and so I sit inside, for a change feeling glad to be inside, and sheltered from the elements.

The cats are glad to be inside also; the matriarch has the prime place in front of the fire, another sleeps on a chair, while the third is restless. He wants to be with me, but also to be outside, and so is unable to settle for long. I feel like that when the conditions are at odds with my mood, but right now, I am content to stay within, and let the storms rage outside.

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The Silence of Omission

July 6, 2008 at 9:52 pm (Aboriginal, courage, ecology, genetic engineering, multinationals, nuclear dangers, philosophy, politics)
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“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men”

Abraham Lincoln

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The lemon tree

July 4, 2008 at 1:00 pm (nature)
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It is not long since the winter solstice. Way back last summer solstice I planted a lemon tree in the then still quite new garden area. I selected a position where the tree would be sheltered from the hot and cold winds and protected from any rare frosts. But the tree was not happy there, and all through the hot summer it simply sat. No new growth was forthcoming, and I was troubled to see it’s lack of progress.

Finally, I realized that it was a make or break situation, that I would have to take the bull by the horns, or was that the lemon by the stem(?) and move it to another spot. If I left it, it would die, if I moved it at least it had a chance. I prepared the planting hole with compost, allowed some weeks to pass for it to settle, and then transplanted the lemon. That was two weeks ago. Each day I would murmur sweet words of encouragement to it, and carefully tried to judge the correct amount of water to give to it. Planting citrus in the middle of winter is not usually the optimum time, to put it mildly. But this is a dry winter to date, and the soil is not cold and sodden, in fact it is still quite dry just below the surface.

Yesterday, joy of joys, I found signs of new growth on the lemon tree! Along the branches are tiny tiny rosy buds of new life. Minute at this stage still, but thrilling just the same. It seems it must be happier……I know I am!

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Different times?

June 27, 2008 at 12:49 am (food, multinationals, philosophy, politics)
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In recent conversation with my mother, the subject of communism came up. In the 1950’s, in Australia, a person could be jailed if found to be a member of the communist party. Times were tough for ordinary working folk in that early post-war period, for not only had they suffered through the Second World War, but had experienced the Great Depression before that. The solidarity of communism offered an alternative experience, but being a member could be a risky business. In this ‘free’ and ‘lucky’ country.

My mother was a member of a women’s co-operative which operated in her area. This co-operative was set up by well educated women, as a way to enable those less fortunate to improve their daily lives. As an example, a vacuum cleaner was purchased by a group of seven women, who had their one day a week to use it. Gradually, some women went on to have their own machine, until it was just two women sharing the use. This same vacuum cleaner and the arrangement lasted for nearly thirty years!

Now had these women been asked “Are you a member of the Communist Party?” the majority would have been horrified, and denied it. As they saw it, they were simply a group of women trying to help each other through tough times. My mother smiles as she recounts that one member of the group was a staunch Catholic, and was vocal in her opposition to Communism.

I bring this up today, having just read an article:

Choices no one should have to make | SocialistWorker.org

What is the connection? I feel it is that people who would not ordinarily associate themselves with anything titled “Socialist”, would nonetheless relate to the subject matter. Hunger. No-one wants to see their family go hungry. But in the world today millions are experiencing that every day, and the cause is not global warming, it is political decision making.

As the author of the article Anuradha Mittal says:

“Depending on the World Bank and IMF for solutions is like giving a key to the bank robber and asking him to guard the bank. We have to fight back, because there is no other option. We need to deal with that.”

and:

“Being the U.S., we have a job to do, and that is to fight the battle in the belly of the beast. We have to put pressure, especially in this year of the presidential elections. What do the presidential candidates stand for? Are they willing to take back the free trade agreements–there is nothing free about them.”

Now whether one lives in the US or elsewhere, the same principle applies:

“So it is really time to put pressure within this country–on the elected officials and the people planning to be in political office–that we need to have a different kind of policy.”

I come back again to this little group of women in the 1950’s. Just one of many many groups around the country. They did not sit about moaning, they got off their butts and did something. How about you? Do you think the times are THAT different? Remember, every action we take has a political consequence.

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What we eat

June 25, 2008 at 12:30 am (food, genetic engineering, multinationals, philosophy, politics)
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When we put food into our mouths, we are making a statement. About what the food is, about where it has come from, about it’s acceptability. Of course there are usually compromises along the way, as few of us can have the luxury of eating totally according to what we believe. Nonetheless, I am always looking for ways that help me to live and eat according to my principles.

And so I come again to the GMO issue. I am not swayed by the fast talking salesmen/women who are pressing me to buy their products. Yesterday, Bob Phelps published an article where he warns on feeding the world with GM food. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7530

Bob Phelps is Executive Director of http://www.geneethics.org/

But how many times am I unwittingly purchasing a product that includes GMO’s? The labelling laws in Australia are weighed in favour of the manufacturer, not the consumer, and it can be very difficult to determine just what is in a product.

http://sites.greenpeace.org.au/ has provided information for the consumer on:True Food Network : Welcome

They provide a range of information to enable the consumer to make well-informed choices on the food consumed, and on ways to voice concerns. To be pro-active.

In South Australia the Genetic Food Information Network also is a great resource. http://users.picknowl.com.au/~sagfin/

Information is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom.

The final word must go to David Suzuki, who is his book Naked Ape to Superspecies says:

“Our disconnection from the Earth is epitomised by our relationship to food. Most urban people associate food with supermarkets but fail to connect it with the land”


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Greed

June 22, 2008 at 1:50 am (Uncategorized)

All week I have been struggling with how to write about the food crisis in the world. Do I refer to the many articles I have about how this is manipulated by the agro-chemical companies, by the US Federal Reserve, by a few key players in the world, such as the Rockefellers? How do I bring it all together?
Today though, it seems I shall take a different tack. I decided to see what Google had to say on global hunger.

Results of Google search - Global Hunger = 602 hits of a possible 558,000. Now this seems a lot to me. This says to me that there is a huge investment in global hunger. Yes, people have invested themselves in continuing this state of affairs. Organisations are committed to it. What would happen if they were successful? They would no longer exist. So of course they are invested in it. I do not want to be complicit in their game, and I urge you to avoid them also.

As the old Chinese saying by Lao Tzu goes - “Give A Man A Fish, Feed Him For A Day. Teach A Man To Fish, Feed Him For A Lifetime”

This brings me to a woman I’ve met, and who was recently interviewed on local television, Mij Tanith.
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/sa/content/2006/s2275611.htm

Urban Guerrillas - Mij Tanith
MIJ TANITH, GUERRILLA GARDENER:” I was a very politically active person and I have been for years but at the moment I think I’ve realised that the only acts of politics that are actually worth putting my energy into are those that literally bear fruit. So working at a grass roots level in a way that is practical and if you think about it, growing your own food is a highly political act.”

http://www.primalseeds.org/guerrilla.htm is a site where people can learn the ‘how to’.

OK, this is not going to change the world in an instant. It does follow the saying though to “Think globally, act locally.” And as Gandhi says - “ Be the change you wish to be in the world” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Another aspect, for those of us in this privileged world, where we know we shall eat each day, is to consider the 100 mile diet. http://100milediet.org/category/about/
Only consuming food which has been grown within a 100 miles of one’s home. It is another way to beat the corporate greed.

Because, when it all boils down to it, greed is the basis for the hunger in this world. Make no mistake about that!

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Nuclear Dumps

June 11, 2008 at 10:37 pm (nuclear dangers, philosophy)
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This week this item was in the news, no surprises, it was expected, but still I feel the grief of what will take place.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/080610/21/177mn.html

The politicians are using typical polly-waffle to avoid answering direct questions from the media, but it does appear most likely that a nuclear waste dump will be built in the Northern Territory. This spells disaster for this country.

Helen Caldicott http://www.helencaldicott.com/ has been a long time activist/educator in the field of nuclear power, warning of the dangers of it’s use. Here’s what she wrote last year about the situation in Australia:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6177&page=1

Andrew Bartlett, of the Australian Democrat Party, has this to say on nuclear disarmament:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7495

Here is how I am feeling today:

Nuclear dumps

Nuclear dumps? What does it mean?
Does it mean it’s to be here
For thousand of years?
For millions of years, the land hoarded it
Where it lay away from the people.
But the people got ‘smart’ or so they say
And learned to dig it all out
To send it away.
Now it’s come back, in manner much changed
And so much more dangerous than ever before.

The Elders they knew of the dangers
Their Law it forbid
To dig in the land, and anger the Mother.
She, they knew, had told them quite clear -
Now you leave well alone, this is not for you here.
But the Elders have gone, their words are forgotten
Ignored or decried and the cultures gone rotten.

More greed it spreads, more sickness it brings,
The large gaping holes from whence it came
Lies scarring the land, and scarring the people.
These gougings have a cost which is beyond measure
For as you hurt the land you hurt the Mother
And you hurt yourself.

And now I am told the battle is lost
The warriors like Helen are mostly forgot.
Governments, demon-a-crazy we have
To plunder to kill whatever they want.
The battle is lost, the war is not.
The war shall go on despite this loss
For if they win the Darkness will descend
The Light will be gone.

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Biosecurity

June 9, 2008 at 11:09 pm (ecology)
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Further to my other posting on weeds, I just came across this article on biosecurity. For decades now, through various changes in governments, the funding for the Australian Quarantine Service has dried up to a dribble. Too few people are expected to do too much work, and despite previous calls to address this by the concerned staff the situation has continued. Not only that, but the emphasis has been placed in the wrong direction. Now, more than 200 submissions have been received from diverse groups by a federal government inquiry.

Let’s hope that this is not yet another inquiry that gets hidden in the archives.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/02/2262713.htm?site=science&topic=enviro

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The Genetic Bill of Rights

June 7, 2008 at 11:32 pm (ecology)
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I mentioned in an earlier post, about the power-full-ness of art from the heart, and I urge you to visit this site and take time to read, and to absorb the messages……time is running out…..we must make changes…….we must stop what is happening…..

http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/articles/20-4GBR.html

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