NZ visit extended
Jan. 1st, 2006 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI've extended my visit to the 15th of January.
I have internet access over here now, but I don't check the net very much while over here though so if you send me a communiqué please be patient with me. It could take me a few days to respond.
Hope you all have a great 2006.
When I return to Australia I expect to be posting lots of pictures of my travels over here. New Zealand is incredibly beautiful.
I must admit I've felt a little depressed sometimes at how much of this place is ruined though. There are vast areas where no trees are standing, steep hillsides with no cover and the land eroding away. No birds. No birds! Birds were the dominant lifeform in this country before the arrival of humans. First the Maori then the whites have extinguished almost all the birdlife. At least the whites acknowledge their shame, but the Maori seem to be attempting to rewrite history and say they were/are not responsible for their part. How depressing. I don't care whether we are white, black, yellow, or red. Wherever we go we are death to all. We need to understand this so that we can change. Denying it just perpetuates the horror.
Went to see a tiny bit of the South Island yesterday. Quite different from the North Island. It gives me warm feelings of familiarity because it reminds me so much of the Hawkesbury area I grew up in. I would give almost anything to live there.
I have internet access over here now, but I don't check the net very much while over here though so if you send me a communiqué please be patient with me. It could take me a few days to respond.
Hope you all have a great 2006.
When I return to Australia I expect to be posting lots of pictures of my travels over here. New Zealand is incredibly beautiful.
I must admit I've felt a little depressed sometimes at how much of this place is ruined though. There are vast areas where no trees are standing, steep hillsides with no cover and the land eroding away. No birds. No birds! Birds were the dominant lifeform in this country before the arrival of humans. First the Maori then the whites have extinguished almost all the birdlife. At least the whites acknowledge their shame, but the Maori seem to be attempting to rewrite history and say they were/are not responsible for their part. How depressing. I don't care whether we are white, black, yellow, or red. Wherever we go we are death to all. We need to understand this so that we can change. Denying it just perpetuates the horror.
Went to see a tiny bit of the South Island yesterday. Quite different from the North Island. It gives me warm feelings of familiarity because it reminds me so much of the Hawkesbury area I grew up in. I would give almost anything to live there.
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Date: 2006-01-02 09:51 am (UTC)I have a great respect for those who write and draw comix. When it is done really well it is one of the best artforms devised. Comix can display dramatic, unexpected scenes that the reader hasn't any prior experience of, whereas books draw upon a reader's previous visual experiences, so by definition can't draw completely new scenes. Movies can show new scenes, but have great difficulty with the internal monologue or omniscient narrative (For example: Linda felt afraid but put on a casual appearance. None of the four remembered meeting years ago under very different circumstances.) Comix are a brilliantly powerful artform.
We can live with our world. We have proven it many times.
The Japanese have a very great respect for their local environment... unfortunately they have a very narrow view of the world. They preserve their own forests, but pay people in other countries to chop down theirs, also their fishermen go to waters beyond Japanese national boundaries to empty the sea of fish and whales. But the fact that they do understand the need to preserve their local environment is great cause for hope. It is true of a lot of other people who have lived in the same place for a long time... though sadly not of all.
Many people see the degraded world around them as normal and think it was always like this. That's a natural human response. We need longer lifespans and better education and a higher standard of living before we can truly see our impact on the world. This has the added advantage that a high standard of living is the only contraceptive that really works. Countries with the highest standards of living actually have negative population growth.
Sweden is a great example of what can be our future if we work in the right direction. No poverty, the highest standard of living in the world, the highest level of literacy in the general population, concern for the environment, negative population growth.