The quiz is run by St. Michael’s Global Mission Group and is raising funds for the Anglicare StopAIDS programme in Papua New Guinea for HIV/AIDS testing, education, counselling and health services.

To raise extra funds, we’re auctioning off a selection of awesome prizes half-way through the quiz. Come prepared with your general knowledge and brainpower to compete in teams of 8 people.

Tickets are $20 each, or if you want to go beyond the call, you can buy a table of 8 and sell the extra tickets to your friends. We’d love to see you there!

E-mail quiz@stmichaels.org.nz, phone (leave a message) / txt 0275 547 714 for tickets or more info.

• 7pm - 9pm, 22nd November 2008

• St Michael’s Church Hall, 83 Upland Rd, Kelburn, Wellington (just before the Kelburn shops)

Youtube video: Anglicare STOPAIDS fights HIV in Papua New Guinea

Remember, remember the 5th of November - so the saying goes.

Well folks, before you light your crackers this year, come along and remember the amazing story of Parihaka and how the people of this Taranaki village used non violent tactics to protest the forceful capture of their village and land. That’s right, before Gandhi and Martin Luther King, peaceful civil disobedience was alive and well in 1881 Aotearoa.

Come to stand for peace, wherever conflict or injustice is found, and celebrate the inspiring story of Parihaka. May we renew the story in our world as we live lives that resist the proud and give grace to the humble.

Please come, and invite your friends to this unique service. We begin at 7pm, Wednesday 5 November at Island Bay Presbyterian Church. Supper will follow.

Arohanui,

David

Three personal reflections on this: I said delightful information because there is a troubling amount of self-righteous anger/joy I find myself taking when armed with a new piece of this sort of information. This makes it too easy to come across like an eco or justice evangelistic zealot that puts people off as fast as sizable leather bound black book between the eyes on the corner of 5th and Main.

I am also reminded of the need to check out what I hear as best I can as difficult as that can be, and date my info when talking to people; another slap on my wrist and an apology to those I passed the first part of the story onto without the second.

On a brighter note, the above also reminds me that awareness raising is of some value. They stopped (I think.) The company was Motorola. Samsung still make bullets missiles and tanks; so do Toshiba and a large list of others. There was a small school protest about such things last week in Dunedin. Check out the article here

I was particularly pleased that the article actually printed the names we gave them rather than staying vague. The figures come from the Stockholm International Peace Research site. Below is a link to the document containing the top 100 weapons manufacturers.

SIPRI Top 100 weapons manufacturers. (copy this link into your address bar, for some reason I can’t get the link to work.) www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/aprod/top100/SIPRI_Top100.pdf/download

The figures are from 2006. It takes a couple of years to gather and process the info. As of yet the lists they put together do not include Chinese or Russian companies. Those marked with an ‘S’ are subsidiaries - that means Samsung makes the list 3 times; congratulations.

I’ve been thinking about what made me shift from someone who took the bus and gave a bit of money to charity, to actually getting a bit more involved in stuff like intentional community, more political engagement and other stuff that goes a bit deeper than putting out recycling every week. A big change in my life was when I got to know (and got a huge crush on) a really socially active, anarchist, vegan hippy (please excuse the false black and white categories) who helped me to see the world in a new, more real way. Which is a bit hard to replicate on a broad scale in terms of a building a social movement! (Or perhaps not, perhaps the way to build an authentic active social movement is for us all to change the way people live by our sheer sexiness?)

What makes or made others get involved in social justice action? A sermon? A media report? Friend’s roping someone in? Stuff people learn at school or uni?

Is it a case of learning about an issue, and then doing something about it? Or is it more often after getting involved in some kind of action, maybe even by accident or circumstance, and that involvement opening someone’s eyes and getting them passionate about the cause?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10536352

Plenty of people have posted stuff on what they are doing with their tax cut on the “give it up” site, cool to read the different things people are passionate about!

http://www.giveitup.org.nz

On a related note, I just read on the Maxim website that

“[New Zealand] Charitable giving in the year 2005/2006 was approximately 0.81 percent of our GDP, relatively low compared with the US where approximately 2.2 percent of GDP was given to charity.”

0.81 %!!!

Surely not

WHAT A SHOCKER

Now that people are paying increasing attention to social and environmental issues surrounding products, ethics seem to be part of the spin of every company.

“Hello, is your company socially responsible?”

“Thank you for asking”

“Well yes… um… and..?”

“Well, our primary objective is to eliminate poverty and pollution worldwide. We are single handedly achieving that through the manufacture of this plastic novelty item. It is outlined in our pre-prepared 7 page response that we send out to any inquiry that has the word ‘ethic’ or environment’ in it.”

SO, what can we really find out? What do we ask? I’d like to hear some practical approaches that people have.

Here is an initial suggestion: Firstly, ask about workers right to collective bargaining and union representation (as per 2 of the eight core conventions of the ILO: conventions 87 and 98). And secondly, asking about the traceability of supply chains which insists on accountability from source.

Any simplifications or alternative suggestions?

- Article from the latest edition of Just Living-

My vision of the future involves empowered communities living in edible landscapes.

I see the transformation of the city into a vibrant, beautiful, sustainable, healthy, playful place to live. I see people redesigning their lifestyles, neighbourhoods, businesses, and cities through fun, practical means. Church groups, primary schools, residents associations, government departments and so on working together as design teams.

Rather than leaving the design and decision-making of our communities up to specialists, I see people empowered to take responsibility and make creative choices about how our neighbourhoods could look, and then being supported to put these plans into action.

I see this transformative environmental education being offered through Urban Permaculture Design Academies.

I see communities in the future that reflect, celebrate and embody the diverse dreams and cultures of their people - that really tap their potential as visionaries and agents of change (no matter how big or small). A key to this is listening and ‘appreciative inquiry’. By focusing on what’s working and what’s possible, rather than what is not, we can acknowledge and appreciate the precious people, stories and resources that make up our communities.

I see regular ‘community conversations’ in which residents talk about what they really like about where they live and how this value could be increased. A group I’m involved in called Four Million Dreams is all about this - having ‘transformative conversations’ about possibility. I see this way of sharing being popularized. Nationwide there would be video submissions about of people’s visions and people in conversations everywhere which tap everyone’s rich stories and connections to culture, place and future hope.

“The rising tide raises all boats” – I see cross sector collaboration in the form of leadership incubator courses, in which motivated people from different sectors take part – arts, environment, social sector and so on. People from community, business and government would come together to work on projects that have multiple benefits.

As a member of Transition Towns Aro Valley Wellington, and owner of Living in the Landscape – Permaculture Design and Training Business, I am actively involved in making this vision a reality.

Transition Towns involve people in learning how they can creatively respond to the challenges of peak oil and climate change and renew and redesign their environment to care for people, and to care for the earth. It’s all about relationships: understanding how natural ecological systems of people, plants, animals, soils, water, air, and sun interact, and actively involving ourselves in that.

The possibilities are enormous if we work together. If we ask “what’s your vision?” and “how can I help?”

Andrew Morrison is a permaculture educator working with others to pioneer tools that enable people to be active citizens, living together with commitment and insight.

I would like to warmly invite you to a fundraising event in support of the New Zealand Red Cross’ efforts to reconstruct war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. I am a representative of an informal network of Anglican and Catholic Christians
concerned about peace and justice. We are creating this opportunity to give
New Zealanders a chance to play a positive role in helping the reconstruction
efforts.

The event will include food stalls, musicians, buskers and brief addresses by
church leaders, politicians and Iraqi citizens who have experienced personally
the tragedy of the war.

Fundraising target: $US 800 billion

• Gourmet sausage sizzle
• Cake stall
• Fair trade ‘People’s Coffee’
• Gelato icecream
• Music and buskers Speakers

There is no charge for food and drinks. Koha / donations to the cause
gratefully received. Donations of cakes and baking welcome on the day.

Venue: Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, corner Molesworth and Hill Streets
opposite Parliament.

Time: Wednesday 20 August, 12 midday – 1.30 pm
(If wet: Thursday 21 August, 12 midday – 1.30 pm)

Me rongo,

Adrian Leason
(06) 364 8966

For those of you who read my post inviting you all to attend the 2008 South Pacific Christian Anarchist hui down in Akaroa over the weekend of 11-13 April and thought, oh my goodness what a crazy concept, I would never attend anything like that, you may be interested to know that our short gathering covered many of the kaupapa that are close to the hearts of JustWiki readers.

A short summary:

• we were hosted by Ngati Tarewa, a hapu o Ngai Tahu, at their beautiful marae Onuku, sheltered beside the beautiful Akaroa harbour. They shared their stories with us as we sat and slept within their whare tupuna. It was a fantastic space for a gathering of people intent on exploring and debating issues together
• we brought and gathered and shared ‘free food’ with each other, to cater our Hui. 40+ participants were very well feed for 2 & 1/2 days on beautiful dumpster foods and garden/preserving cupboard produce. About three teams did 3 separate dives in Christchurch and Tauranga before our event, which supplied 95 percent of our kai. It was fantastic and a real conversion experience for those amongst us not experienced at the quality of free food available after hours in our local supermarket dumpsters
• the hui was organised and led by women, with gender perspectives and discussions a high priority on the programme. We heard about Greenham Commons Women’s Peace Camp in the 1980s and feminist approaches to anti-militarism and war, discussed the roles of women in communities and what whanau means to us, and had a workshop about ‘deep masculinity’. It was a very empowering hui for all the women present, many of whom had never been asked to lead a workshop at a conference before, despite having years of experience in christian, anarchist, activist or community settings.
• we were a diverse and united group. Across the gathering there were 6 Australians involved in ‘intentional christian community’, and more than 30 New Zealanders, who included people attached to the christian church, people living in intentional christian community, people involved in secular activist and pacifist work and ‘regular anarchists’. We shared openly and honestly with each other, and all felt connected with common beliefs and visions for our world. It was awesome.

So to anyone who missed out on this year’s gathering but would like to connect with this growing network of people interested in the connections between Christianity and Anarchism, feel free to log on to our website, http://anz.jesusradicals.com/ and plan to visit Melbourne for the SPCA Hui 09, next year.

Kia tau te rangimarie o te Atua ki a koutou

na, Jo Cameron

2. I love the way they organised themselves - it shows there is a militant spirit alive and kicking, it’s just kicking at the wrong things and preoccupied with economic self-interest.

3. I love the way they draw attention to the way the world is changing and our need to get with the programme. And I also would sneak in another love here - I love the way they have given the media an ‘excuse’ to FINALLY get talking about transition towns. Hopefully, involvement will rapidly follow. I still maintain that parish contexts can provide a vital point of engagement in this regard.

Of course the road user charges should go up. Truck drivers, along with everyone else, are going to find the transition to an economy not based upon cheap oil really tough to begin with. That’s a point of pastoral care, mission, love, engagement, change etc - it’s what the church, arguably, is supposed to be all about.

I was just talking with someone from school, who said they wish they had had some eggs handy for when the trucks went past. Feelings are running high.

So thanks, truckers. Perhaps you’ve done us all a favour. Now, hopefully, we can return to the REST of the news (which this morning seemed to consist mostly of trucks and tornadoes).