Thought this was interesting. I actually find it inspiring...and less
intimidating as his first 'challenge'.

I've only got time to post it (via my email) before I gotta go!

This is from Claude who posted it in the Long Song:

"20 March 07 - When I attended the SOS as a media rep, I suggested to the
Youth Voice that it consider forming itself into an organisation so others
could join in. That seemed too big a step, with the result that postings now
wonder if the energy is lost, fading away. It is and it will. It is a
natural process of how humans work. If you want to keep something going, you
must organise it, so as individuals move on pursuing their own gains, the
organisation brings in new people to keep it alive and thriving.

But while this is the state of the Youth Voice, in the bigger world, many
things are happening right now - some out of balance. It seems every
politician in NZ saw Al Gore's film and now has become green - we must do
something about global warming.

The worry here is how the focus on global warming is the same sort of
unidirectional thinking that got us into the mess in the first place. Plant
trees and we save the world, switch to biofuel and we save the world, buy a
Prius and we save the world. If tomorrow we halted all 20th century CO2
emissions, we would still have huge problems facing us. If you read the RMA
or the Local Government Act, they talk about Social, Economic, Cultural and
Environmental wellbeing, not just cutting greenhouse gasses.

I've just spent two months researching investments in biofuel, and am
astounded by the amount of misinformation being promulgated by people who
should know better. Corn produces 18 gallons of biofuel per acre and uses 8
gallons of diesel to make it. In contrast Algae produces 15,000 gallons per
acre, and it grows faster if CO2 is pumped in. On a sunny day it will
consume 80% of the CO2, down to 50% at night. So why don't we pump CO2 from
Huntley or Golden Bay Cement works into algae ponds? Because the guys who
invented the process are struggling to find investments to take it to the
next stage. In contrast, in the USA, the Corn Lobby has been told that the
farm subsidies enacted by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 may actually be
ended in 2008. So they got a US$1.50 per gallon subsidy for corn ethenol.
Politics not performance.

It's called the Tapeworm Economy. A tapeworm emits a chemical that makes you
want to eat things that are good for the tapeworm and bad for you. In the
tapeworm economy powerful interested exert control on media, government,
academia, science and a host of other key influencers to do things that are
good for them, but bad for humanity.

At this point, the Tapeworm economy sees that global warming can be
profitable. And we may see some real improvements come out of it, although
we will also see an awful lot of wealth conversion. I found the most active
place for biofuel in the USA is in Texas, home of GW and Big Oil. Hmm. As I
looked further, I found some young people with really good ideas, top in the
field, and I also found lots of cynical old dinosaurs trying to cash in.

Youth Voice here in NZ was the most dynamic group I had ever seen focused on
the future of earth and her humans. Unlike the wooly bear groups in the US,
Youth Voice brought together young people who we can expect will actually do
something effective. Do not underestimate the power that was there for a
week.

However, for it to become effective, it needs to adopt the 15
characteristics of a biological organism, which I will quote from Dr.
Elisabet Sahtouris:

1. Self-creation (autopoiesis)
2. Complexity (diversity of parts)
3. Embeddedness in larger holons and dependence on them (holarchy)
4. Self-reflexivity (autognosis--self-knowledge)
5. Self-regulation/maintenance (autonomics)
6. Response ability--to internal and external stress or other change
7. Input/output exchange of matter/energy/information with other holons
8. Transformation of matter/energy/information
9. Empowerment/employment of all component parts
10. Communications among all parts
11. Coordination of parts and functions
12. Balance of Interests negotiated among parts, whole, and embedding
holarchy
13. Reciprocity of parts in mutual contribution and assistance
14. Conservation of what works well
15. Creative change of what does not work well

Until you do the first, the others are not possible. So I put it to you.

Do you wish to create Youth Voice as a living organism?"

Eugh. I reeeeeeeeally gotta get back into things in regards to Youth Voice
and the Long Song. Jeez. Really gotta put some thinking into how we're going
to survive and thrive...

- Rerenga

So far up, up above
Falling, mists are rising
On and on waterfall
Water lapping on the shore
Skipping stones across
Ripples, above and under

Tranquil movement
Rushing sound
A dilapidated building
Fathomless eyes

Crystal grains crunching
Under feet
Slowing time
Stillness
Peace!

Nice weather we seem to be having. Hmmm. 'Four Seasons in One Day' by Crowded House would probably suffice to be the anthem of the week, but would probably be more on target if it was called 'Eight Seasons in One Day Over a Period of a Week'. Yes, I think that would do very well.
I'm confused by which season we should be in by now due to the fact that it's not overly hot right now and it's not got that Autumn-y feel in the air yet.

Although we did have a bit of a cold snap yesterday...but I think that was more Winter than Autumn showing it's face in the Eight Season in One Day day.

It was scary a couple of days ago though. The wind, the rain, the ominous dark clouds with the thunder claps and blasts accompanied by the blinding lightining. Yeah. The lights kept flickering too, not the fast flickering either, but the second long flickering where it seems like the actual-powers-that-be-were-fighting-for-dominance-over-the-lightbulbs kind of flickering. We even saw the blue of electricity snapping from the bulbs.
Needless to say we pulled everything in the house from all the plug sockets and got candles and torches ready. We kept the lights on though.
Must not have been that scared after all huh?

But yeah, weather-wise what a weird week.

And that ends this post of perpetual plight...of attempts at astonishingly atrocious alliteration also.

- Rerenga

Ok, so the time has come already and it looks like I'm going out to occupy.
Who'd of thought?

Now I feel like a radical youth.

- Rerenga

How's it TIG-NZ people? Looks like there are more joining! Awesome.

I arrived back home from Nepal on Thursday and spent most of the weekend immersing myself back into a strange yet familiar society. Tried catching up on some much needed sleep over the past few nights but I'm finding it a challenge getting re-acquainted to the timezone.
I'm home yet it has a different 'feel' to what I was expecting, to what I was used to also. Strange yet familiar. It has lost some meaning for me too, I'm not sure in what way, but it hasn't got as much as a hold on me as before.
I'm listening to Western music for the first time since coming back...!

My time in Nepal was amazing, unreal, unnerving, AWESOME! I'm still trying to get over what it was exactly for me.

The culture shock on the first day was near overwhelming. Never before had I ever experienced what I was going through that day, and I was both relishing and fighting it. By the end of that one day - which just so happened to be one of their big celebration days - we had already been through a 'helpful' mob of Nepali men at the airport looking for tips; a drunken 'rollercoaster-like' ride in a micro-micro-van taxi through the bumpy, potholed, one laned streets of Kathmandu lined with people, rubbish, people, kids, animals, motorbikes, more vehicles and people; kids holding up ropes to stop vehicles from passing for money; first black-out while trying to use the internet in a cyber-cafe; beggars - old ladies, mothers with babies, men, old men, kids - asking for money; getting out of a micro-micro-van taxi because it 'bumped' into another micro-micro-van ('talking' between the drivers ensued...) and having to walk a km or so to where we were staying; threading through a gathering of people in the dark while the King drove past in a convoy of dark cars - there was a bit of tension in the air due to the 'popularity' of the King with his people at this time.
All of that and throw in the differences of countries, society, environment, cultures and language and you basically have a general idea of what we experienced on the first day.

But hey. We survived.

And that night while walking away from the people who were gathered in the dark streets, the predicaments and events of the day ran through my mind and I found myself thinking that this has been one helluva time and it's only been one day in Kathmandu! From then on I was happy. Something clicked for me and I had resolved my personal inner conflicts due to the culture shock and got over it. The prospect of having similar eventful days for the rest of the days we were there for - I couldn't help but laugh! Come what may I was determined to learn as much as I could, meet as many people as I could, experience everything and anything that Nepal had to offer and have a great time. So I did.

Now here I am sitting at my computer. The journey ended a few days ago but the ripples are still going. I'm not sure how long they will last or what sort of an impact they will have, but my GOSH! Good times.

- Rerenga

PS I forgot to mention: I miss NEPAL!