Let me set the scene for you of one particular participant:

Imagine you're from New Zealand/Aotearoa, you are in London as part of
the 2000 strong crowd attending the dedication of the New Zealand
memorial in Hyde Park. Even better if you can imagine yourself as one
of the 32 veterans who fought at the war and was part of the largest
contingent of NZ soldiers to attend that day.
There you are, among your fellow countrymen (and women) in a strange
land far away from home - the furtherest you've been for many years -
sitting on those plastic chairs you hate. The kind that can topple an
old soldier with arthiritic knees without so much as a creak of
warning.
It's a 'colder-than-back-home' kind of day and you're wearing your
only dark navy suit - the one you wear to funerals.
You can't help but make the association on such a sombre occasion all
things considered, and such a black clad crowd if ever you've seen
one, and quite frankly, you've seen too many over the years.

You listen to the speeches with cynicism. 'Do they really give a
damn?' you think scrutinising their faces and watching for any tell
tale sign of disinterest.
It's been so many years and you're starting to wonder if all the pomp
and patriotic ANZAC days back home have been outlived already...so
many of your friends have gone now, so many things have changed. Your
uniform and cap, even your medals, the lack lustre feel to them ever
more prominent as each year passes; it just doesn't feel the same.

You let your mind drift back and forth from the present to the past as
the speeches carry on. You remember all the long days and long nights,
the hardship and deaths of the war. You remember the loss and the
pain, but then you can't forget the good times either.
You smile as you reminisce the good times. Yes, there were good times.
You come to the conclusion that maybe it has been outlived, but for
this moment you'll let it go for another day.

This pulls you back to the ceremony, and you watch as Dave Dobbyn, a
kiwi musician whom you've heard of and have actually liked some of his
songs - in particular that one called 'Loyal' - is setting up in front
of the memorial.
'Now if that doesn't remind you of a cememtery, I don't know what will'.
The New Zealand memorial, you remember reading about it in the
itinerary, but can only remember the name...'what was it?' you think
to yourself...'ah, yes, the Southern Stand'. An appropriate name which
you aprrove of; you were always a man of few words, and you think the
aptly named Southern Stand says all it needs.

You suddenly notice the speeches have finished and wryly give a smile.
It's been a long day and you're looking forward to getting out of the
damn plastic chair.
Dave Dobbyn then begans to strum and to your surprise, it sounds
familliar. Sitting back, you settle to listen, vaguely remembering
your granddaughter singing to this tune. You make an effort to listen
to the lyrics, you're starting to like the tune already as it reminds
you of your granddaugther back in New Zealand...

tonight I am feeling for you
under the state of a strange land
you have sacrificed much to be here
'there but for grace…' as I offer my hand
welcome home, I bid you welcome, I bid you welcome
welcome home from the bottom of my heart

out here on the edge
the empire is fading by the day
and the world is so weary in war
maybe we'll find that new way
so welcome home, see i made a space for you now
welcome home from the bottom of our heart
welcome home from the bottom of our hearts

keep it coming now - keep it coming now
you'll find most of us here with our hearts wide open
keep it coming now - keep on coming now
keep it coming now - keep on coming now
there's a woman with her hands trembling - haere mai
and she sings with a mountain's memory - haere mai

there's a cloud the full length of these isles
just playing chase with the sun
and it's black and it's white and it's wild
all the colours are one

so welcome home, I bid you welcome, I bid you welcome
welcome home from the bottom of our hearts
welcome home, see i made a space for you now
welcome home from the bottom of our hearts
from the bottom of our hearts

As the last strums of the guitar die away, you don't notice the tears
coursing down your cheeks.

I've been thinking about this a lot and with Carl's post in the forum finally clinched it me. I'm present to as many of us as possible to go to the Digital Earth Summit in San Francisco.

I believe we have many things to offer. We have inspiration! We have fresh perspectives! We have ideas, connection, pride, youth, identity, open minds and open hearts! We have love (sounds mushy doesn't it?)! And most of all we have HOPE for the future! Hope, hope, hope.

Yes, our message of hope for the future can be given through live broadcast, it can be given remotely.
Yes, technology has given us the means to do it from home and to save a few CO2 emissions in the process that would otherwise not be used...*cough*.
But then what? When the people at the 2007 Digi Earth Summit see our video link broadcast and it ends, then what? They either go home touched, moved and inspired, or they just go home.
Frankly, I'd be more impressed to see 100 youth standing on the stage in front of me and telling me how they can even justify standing there - thousands of miles away from where they come from - talking on the issue of sustainability, climate change and the like. If a hundred youth can convince me that they're for the cause and commited to it, then I'd agree that their presence there is justified and it would have more of an impact on me than any video link from across the world.

And the impact that's possible for us to make on the Summit is worth the money, time, energy and CO2 emissions that'll be used to get us there and back.
Why? Because ultimately it's worth saving the world.

Is that too big a picture? Or not enough? For me, it's just being real and putting it into perspective.
You've gotta take a step backwards to take two steps forward.

Yes, we can carry on doing our thing in our own backyards - individually or otherwise - and see how that goes. But that's easy compared to what we are - or were - proposing to do.
People have done what we're doing right now for years, and what we're doing is going to continue to be done. But so far, it's only done so much, and it's only got us this far.
What we can make this opportunity into is anything we want it to be. It's never been done before, on this scale, on this subject, and defintely not from this country.
So why not do it?
Hell, people have done and used up materials, time, energy, CO2 emissions and gone through harder challenges for lesser causes!

And sure you can also point out the programme and mention how it's 'specialised and technical' (I'm not picking on you Tom, it's just that you put it in a good way!), things that most of us don't understand (me definitely included!), but think about the big picture. It's about sustainability, it's about making the world a better palce, it's about taking action in an issue that we do have knowledge on and that we are passionate and commited to.
What I see when I read their programme on 'semantic operations', 'interoperability', and 'SDI, NSDI, ISO, and OGC', I see potential. I see possibility for creating conversations on bringing it back to people.
You could even say based on the programme they need us there!

Also, something else I'd like to share with you guys is a comment my aunty made when we were watching the news:

"How is it that Al Gore can justify coming to NZ for only a few hours to give a private presentation on climate change, only to fly out again on the same day? Where's the 'sustainability' in that?"

So can someone tell me who Al Gore has to be to travel the world promoting his movie and spread the word on climate change? To keep his integrity intact, who does he have to be?
I have to say, my aunty's question had never occurred to me before, I had never questioned Al Gore's trip here to NZ and had only looked at it as a great opportunity on spreading the word and getting people aware of the situation. But y'know what? He could've just set up a video conference call from wherever he was, he could've used technology to give us his message, but he didn't. Why?

Maybe it's because he's a hypocrite of a has-been politician who's only in it for himself and he really likes to be the centre of attention and also enjoys travelling to far away places in the fight for climate change!

Could be.

Or maybe he knew that in the long run, it wasn't going to be as effective as it would've been had he not come here himself. Maybe he knew that it was about people and getting the message to people face-to-face. Maybe it's to show that yes, he's flying and making all these trips and putting more CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, but it's because what he's doing justifies the means.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all for people who do something because they feel justified in doing it - that's too dependent on the truth...and we all know how absolute the truth can be.

But what I'm just saying is I don't see this as a question of keeping CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, or using up time and energy better placed elsewhere (like where?!), but just like Carl said I see this as a question for ourselves of 'who do we have to be to make this possible?'

I acknowledge the plans that are emerging for hosting yet another Summit (or a few) here in NZ, and I'm actually inspired by that as well.
For this post though, I'd just like to keep it to why I think as many of us should go. Besides, it's already getting longer than I anticipated it to be...

In conclusion, here's some things that I'm present to:

* It's possible to attend the Summit with integrity and commitment
* It's possible for us all to go
* It will be hard, but let's face it, we knew it wasn't going to be easy in the first place anyway
* We can use our time and energy elsewhere for sure - but why? This is a good enough cause, and it's one where we're all passionate about anyway. So the way I see it, this is only a matter of preference.

Don't get me wrong, if you really think it's not a good idea to go, then I respect that. Just don't tell me you're basing it on:

* the cost of time, money and energy
* the use of CO2 emissions
* the programme

Because if this cause isn't as good as any reason to attend, then how can you justify going to work everyday on gas-guzzling machine? How can you justify using transport at all?
Why not put it this way, why would you ever need to leave the country / your region / your city / your town anyway?
Hell, why leave the house at all?
Stay home, because to put it in that perspective and that way of thinking, that's what you're heading to when it all comes down to it.

So what's emerging for you?

- Rerenga

PS This is my rant. I had to post it somewhere other than the forum because it was:
a) too long (for the song lol)
b) not how I wanted to go about doing things
c) the way I was feeling at one stage
d) therapy to know I 'voiced' it for people to read
e) cleared my head for new ways of thinking!
PPS This is in NO WAY meant to offend anyone and/or imply that I'm a Sustainable Saint who's always right. :P

I don't even know if I spelt that right, but I'm listening to a
podcast on a Spanish beginners class and it had me thinking about
different languages.

I am so grateful to know how to speak two languages fluently. I find
that it makes it easier to relate to other cultures having your own to
connect with.

So I want to learn as many languages as I can starting with Spanish!
Unfortunately, I lack in discipline and focus which makes it harder to
learn on my own, and there are no language classes available within
50kms of where I am.
Hello internet. Hello newsletters. Hola podcasts.

But hey, keep on keepin' on right?

Oh, and just an FYI, one of the main things I learnt from doing 101
Spanish via Correspondence is:

Mi cumpleanos es diecisiete de febrero! Soy es maori y soy de vive
aotearoa. Y tu?

Hah! I like birthdays. And I don't know how to do the spanish symbols
(not even sure if they'll come up since I'm sending this post from my
email) else they'd be on there! Now I gotta get back to work.

- Rerenga

I just sent an enquiry form to TVNZ on a tv programme that they've got
on TV1 at 6am Sunday mornings:
---------------------
Kia ora,

I've only just heard about this programme (and haven't even seen an
episode yet) but it actually sounds really cool. Only thing is, it's
at 6:30am?!

I'd say this is a programme people would be interested in watching.
Educational, ingenious, survivor-like (without the voting off I
think?), with a link to sustainability (being self-sustainable, using
raw materials) it's got a lot of potential pull for a wider audience.

But the time is a put off.

So what I'd like to suggest if for the programme to at least be during
the day, if not some time in the arvo/evening.

Nga mihi.
---------------------
The programme is called 'Rough Science' and as I stated in the above,
I haven't even seen an epidsode yet! But one of my workmates have been
telling me about it and it really does sound cool. It'd be interesting
to check it out.

It's about scientists who are on an island (heh) and are given tasks
to complete within a time-frame using only basic, raw materials! And
they seem to pull it off!
My workmate was talking about how one of the tasks was to create
something to playback voice and the guy only used things like wood,
wax and string!

Anyway, that's only one example. I'm going to Google it later on and
see what else they've done.

I actually want to see this...but just as long it's at a decent hour.

- Rerenga

Uuuuuuuush, have just been alerted (by my Gmail Alert) that there's a new New World with bilingual signs!

What the?! Can I get a 'wooooohoooooo'! That's cool as! I'd go just to see the signs...hahahahahahahaha.

Interesting to see if this picks up anywhere else.

- Rerenga