Questions, Ponderings and various stuff.

World War 1 was fought to make the world safe for democracy. World War 2 was fought for ourselves and our allies. Is this new breed of war being fought simply to make the world safer for consumption? Jane Holtz Kay

A little poem about lots.

Hold still little one while I paint you in brands.
No thought needs to go into where or at what cost.
The only cost worth considering is your own.
Your personal economic loss is far more important than another life.
And the freedom found in conforming to patterns and trends.

Was that freedom of choice you said?
I’m sorry I missed it, for some reason I thought you said compliance


In Launceston; no sorry Tasmania in general there is a huge push from Gunns (if your not sure who they are just Google them) to build a pulp mill close to Launceston pumping it’s effluent the Tamar River. On the other side of the coin there is also a large push from various public groups to attempt to stop this getting passed through Government.

I have always placed myself on the opposing party seeing it as something that will have a massive negative impact upon the local environment. However a couple of weekends ago while Ben and I were statueing in Launceston a conversation was started with another statue (haha just because I’ve got no friends and am limited to talking to statues!) about the pulp mill; his thoughts were as follow:

We should let the pulp mill be built, not because it is a positive move for the Tasmanian environment, but because we should be aware of the impact our consumption is having upon the environment.

As it stands we are happy to consume 1st grade paper etc at the expense of the Indonesian and the Chinese environments. We get to blindly consume copious amounts without having to deal with the social and environmental implications our consumption brings.(this does not just stop with paper)

I still don’t want to see the mill go ahead, but I think he has made a fair comment that needs consideration, probably not so much for the yes or no of the building of the pulp mill but of how we choose to live.

I went to hear Jim Ife last night speaking on poverty and the likes in Launceston. His lecture can be found HERE:

If social justice and poverty are of interest to you, definately check it out.
He finished with a quote that has stayed with me:

“Vaclav Havel so eloquently put it, in one of my favourite quotes, “We must not be ashamed that we are capable of love, friendship, sympathy, understanding and tolerance, but just the opposite: we must set these fundamental dimensions of our humanity free from their private exile and accept them as the only genuine starting point of meaningful human community”