Two San Francisco Chronicle Facebook Posts of February 2018
Monday, February 12, 2018
Friday, January 12, 2018
The Curse of Central Otago
Posted 7th January 2018 to the mountain scene newspaper Queenstown NZ.
It’s been a long times since I have been into Skippers, and actually in a VW Kombi the Traditional Skippers Bus of the 1970s
I am so gutted to read that the Historic Mount Aurum Homestead is now gone but was very sad to see that all the trees are dead around Skippers. It looks absolutely terrible. I don’t think I could bear going back there now. Sad how it was once a place of great beauty now it looks like an industrial accident. It really is painful. The progress of modern times has not been kind to Central Otago. A cancerous petulance of Ugly has fallen on a once fair land.
It’s been a long times since I have been into Skippers, and actually in a VW Kombi the Traditional Skippers Bus of the 1970s
I am so gutted to read that the Historic Mount Aurum Homestead is now gone but was very sad to see that all the trees are dead around Skippers. It looks absolutely terrible. I don’t think I could bear going back there now. Sad how it was once a place of great beauty now it looks like an industrial accident. It really is painful. The progress of modern times has not been kind to Central Otago. A cancerous petulance of Ugly has fallen on a once fair land.
Mayors should battle for the environment
Posted 5 January 2018 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ.
I was starting to wonder if the population has ANY free will when it comes to saving the environment but today someone has had enough of plastic straws and is getting traction in the media...
Years ago I wrote to several Key Mayors including Tim Shadbolt of Invercargill if they could join together for the people they represent and do what central government cant seem to do... Fight Waste which is a huge ratepayer Burdon.
Problem number one is multinationals make tons of non returnable containers of which they expect ratepayers to dispose of into our environment and our lame Government caved into this without so much as a whimper.
Even the Green Party appears mute on this subject.
As someone in the hospitality industry I am alarmed buy the increasing amount of this trash like water bottles that where never even a remote a necessity in the past.
And why old school paper grocery bags are not a choice in a country that makes so much paper is beyond me.
Go on mayors, try and get your free will back and do something hopeful !
published 8th Jan 2018
I was starting to wonder if the population has ANY free will when it comes to saving the environment but today someone has had enough of plastic straws and is getting traction in the media...
Years ago I wrote to several Key Mayors including Tim Shadbolt of Invercargill if they could join together for the people they represent and do what central government cant seem to do... Fight Waste which is a huge ratepayer Burdon.
Problem number one is multinationals make tons of non returnable containers of which they expect ratepayers to dispose of into our environment and our lame Government caved into this without so much as a whimper.
Even the Green Party appears mute on this subject.
As someone in the hospitality industry I am alarmed buy the increasing amount of this trash like water bottles that where never even a remote a necessity in the past.
And why old school paper grocery bags are not a choice in a country that makes so much paper is beyond me.
Go on mayors, try and get your free will back and do something hopeful !
published 8th Jan 2018
Saturday, December 23, 2017
The Year of the Trump 2017
Posted 21st December 2017 to the Southland Times Invercargill NZ
As the POTUS of America Donald the Trump has dragged the American Political System
Backwards though a hedge and it’s looking very disheveled and confused on year down the track.
The big question now is he taking the Republican Party to hell with him down the road he is going
or will he pivot at the gates and leave them to face the music ? Paul Ryan has just consigned millions of Americans to
misery and death without a hint of remorse If Donald is a true actor and a closet democrat, as he was in the past...
He could do the mother of all pivots and throw Congress and the Senate under the bus.
And certainly come out a Hero of the People?
But if he signs the bill he will be universally despised and Ryan & co will Push him under the Access Hollywood coach!
Either way the true Donald will OUT very soon and the guessing will end.
As the POTUS of America Donald the Trump has dragged the American Political System
Backwards though a hedge and it’s looking very disheveled and confused on year down the track.
The big question now is he taking the Republican Party to hell with him down the road he is going
or will he pivot at the gates and leave them to face the music ? Paul Ryan has just consigned millions of Americans to
misery and death without a hint of remorse If Donald is a true actor and a closet democrat, as he was in the past...
He could do the mother of all pivots and throw Congress and the Senate under the bus.
And certainly come out a Hero of the People?
But if he signs the bill he will be universally despised and Ryan & co will Push him under the Access Hollywood coach!
Either way the true Donald will OUT very soon and the guessing will end.
Invercargill's Student Strategy NZ
Posted 16th December 2017 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ.
It was great to see Mayor Tim there for the Southland Institute of Technology for the 2017 Graduation Ceremony
At the Stadium. He really is a celebrity Mayor and very entertaining for any function.
Sorry to see after all the Shadbolt zero frees branding the rest of the country has adapted it for other centres
Which means our branding is redundant.
I wanted to say to Mayor Shadbolt that instead of zero rent or fees for students as an incentive perhaps a
Universal Basic Income for students might be a new angle, that way the cities landlords don’t get
Stressed and there could be conditions attached like attendance and aptitude. Also students should feel
proud to go to their graduation ceremony as I recall we where back in the 1980s.
If a community gives out free education they should feel thanked for it.
Published p.6 Dec 18 2017
It was great to see Mayor Tim there for the Southland Institute of Technology for the 2017 Graduation Ceremony
At the Stadium. He really is a celebrity Mayor and very entertaining for any function.
Sorry to see after all the Shadbolt zero frees branding the rest of the country has adapted it for other centres
Which means our branding is redundant.
I wanted to say to Mayor Shadbolt that instead of zero rent or fees for students as an incentive perhaps a
Universal Basic Income for students might be a new angle, that way the cities landlords don’t get
Stressed and there could be conditions attached like attendance and aptitude. Also students should feel
proud to go to their graduation ceremony as I recall we where back in the 1980s.
If a community gives out free education they should feel thanked for it.
Published p.6 Dec 18 2017
Queenstown NZ Tourism Revolution needed
Posted 11th Dec 2017 to the Mountain Scene Newspaper Queenstown NZ.
I look at Queenstown these days and I sense despair for the future.. Every thing is hanging on direction for people of great wealth and power coming in from far away to fix Queenstown with a bundle of cash and good intentions.
The sad fact is there are way to few Paul Brianerds out there to come in and save your bacon.
If people wish to live and work in a place like Queenstown they will need to pull together and form cooperatives.
The Government is too weak and greedy private enterprise are not going to help.
In economic terms you are in a DEAD END unless you pull together.
As UK leader Jeremy Corbin says there is now no real alternative.
Our property speculation bubble will POP one day and nobody has a plan that I can see
And a lot of our benevolent rich people will turn out to have feet of clay when that happens.
A strong co-operative is unbreakable!
I look at Queenstown these days and I sense despair for the future.. Every thing is hanging on direction for people of great wealth and power coming in from far away to fix Queenstown with a bundle of cash and good intentions.
The sad fact is there are way to few Paul Brianerds out there to come in and save your bacon.
If people wish to live and work in a place like Queenstown they will need to pull together and form cooperatives.
The Government is too weak and greedy private enterprise are not going to help.
In economic terms you are in a DEAD END unless you pull together.
As UK leader Jeremy Corbin says there is now no real alternative.
Our property speculation bubble will POP one day and nobody has a plan that I can see
And a lot of our benevolent rich people will turn out to have feet of clay when that happens.
A strong co-operative is unbreakable!
21st Century Blues & Anti Natalists
Posted 8th December 2017 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ
Donald trump and his extended family have cast a bit of a shadow on the human spirit,
we have been working on the problem of giving humanity a meaningful life for decades now but it looks to some like South African Anti-Natalist David Bendar are saying that perhaps the existence of sentient beings is a cosmic mistake.
It does seem like even though we have all the tools, knowledge and philosophy at our finger tips we just cant make life fulfilling for more than 1 percent of the human population and even they are riddled with anxiety.
Meanwhile the United States Government is experimenting with misery as a motivation for better productivity.
Perhaps they should try and use their limited imagination to see a positive end point to all this because our greatest thinkers
are at a loss. If this is our best effort maybe the anti-natalist have a point.
Let’s hope our own leaders see things differently.
Donald trump and his extended family have cast a bit of a shadow on the human spirit,
we have been working on the problem of giving humanity a meaningful life for decades now but it looks to some like South African Anti-Natalist David Bendar are saying that perhaps the existence of sentient beings is a cosmic mistake.
It does seem like even though we have all the tools, knowledge and philosophy at our finger tips we just cant make life fulfilling for more than 1 percent of the human population and even they are riddled with anxiety.
Meanwhile the United States Government is experimenting with misery as a motivation for better productivity.
Perhaps they should try and use their limited imagination to see a positive end point to all this because our greatest thinkers
are at a loss. If this is our best effort maybe the anti-natalist have a point.
Let’s hope our own leaders see things differently.
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