The website http://www.icanw.org.nz will go live tomorrow afternoon, with the new ICAN-ANZ campaign resources, which include ideas about what you can do to progress the abolition of nuclear weapons wherever you are.

The launch of ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand will be held at 2.30pm, 25 June
Friends Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Road, Auckland
Followed by afternoon tea and a screening of Beating the Bomb

Beating the Bomb is an award winning documentary produced and directed by Meera Patel and Wolfgang Matt. It is about the biggest weapons of mass destruction ever created, the people who use them and, more importantly, the people who oppose them. Beating the Bomb charts the history of the British peace movement against the backdrop of the atomic age. The film frames nuclear weapons within the wider context of global justice, and the narrative follows the so called ‘nuclear deterrent’, starting at the dawn of the nuclear age in WWII to present.

Plus the opportunity to have your say about the abolition of nuclear weapons on ICAN-ANZ’s first video!

Hosted by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and ICAN-ANZ. For more information contact ICAN-ANZ by email or at http://www.icanw.org.nz
The flyer for the ICAN-ANZ launch is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/icanzlaunch.pdf

See http://www.icanw.org for more information on the world-wide campaign.

Download the PDF here: Just Facts GST

View other fact sheets available for download.

Download the PDF here: Just Facts Carers

View other fact sheets available for download.

Hansen emphasised that there is a gap between what scientists understand and what the public know – this may seem obvious, but it is a gap that is widening and is still something policy makers rely on heavily as the basis for inaction. Unless this changes, our leaders are effectively handing next generations a planet that’s out of control. And this “intergenerational injustice” is simply unacceptable.

In terms of science, Hansen mainly focused on the basics of climate change, although one point he made deserves attention here – that the last six years have seen the deepest minimum in the solar cycle in roughly a century. Normally, this would equate to a slight global cooling. And yet, the energy input to our atmosphere has still been increasing, and warming continuing. This puts to rest the climate denier argument that the global warming we’re seeing is the result of natural fluctuations in the solar cycle.

When asked what he thought of NZ’s ‘clean and green’ image, Hansen answered that our country certainly “looks very green” but that our emissions have risen 20% since the Kyoto Protocol, which speaks for itself. Perhaps he’s seen this video of our PM embarrassing himself:

He also condemned Solid Energy’s plans to invest billions of dollars mining low-grade lignite in Southland.

The sticking point of the lecture was the continually emphasised need for a price on carbon. A rising carbon price, Hansen stated, is simply the only way we will ever phase out the widespread use of fossil fuels. And it’s a relatively painless solution for the average NZer, because the income would be distributed straight back to the public at household level.

A win-win argument for acting now.

Owner of Waatea News Willie Jackson has come out slamming RNZ for not renewing the contract stating “They shut the door in our face … They are getting $38 million but they can’t afford $280,000 to get an insight into a Maori world.” Jackson is a former Alliance MP and current radio presenter on Radio Live.

A recent press release from the Maori Party has also criticised RNZ. “Maori groups have fought long and hard for access to the airwaves, and met staunch resistance from mainstream radio… Maori language and Maori viewpoints are almost entirely absent from commercial radio, and are confined to ghetto slots on National Radio” says Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell.

There is some question about whether RNZ approached the Maori funding trust Te Mangai Paho for aid in funding their contract for Waatea News. In any case, what remains the heart of this matter is the issue of public service broadcasting remaining a low priority for the National-led Government, which recently labelled TVNZ 7 as a “nice to have”. Much of both Jackson and Flavell’s justified anger over the canning of Waatea News has been directed towards RNZ. The elephant in the room seems to be that Waatea may not have been canned at all if the government had not put a hold on RNZ funding – which itself was a disgruntled settlement by this government after they faced widespread protest to their original policy to significantly cut funding.

The other important point in this debate has been raised by Te Ururoa Flavell. Regardless of whether he meant to include RNZ in what he labels “mainstream radio”, the network remains one of our last standing bastions of public service broadcasting. It has an imperative to represent those corners and perspectives of our society which are so neglected by our commercial media, especially concerning Maori. Seeing Waatea News disappear from RNZ is just another sad step towards total domination of our airwaves by commercial media, considering the commercialisation of TVNZ 6 earlier this year and the announcement that funding to TVNZ 7 will end from July 2012. The story is an example of just one more casualty in a much larger war – in what should be a raging debate over the importance of public service broadcasting and how little it is valued in the current climate.

Reflections at the time of the death of Osama bin Laden

The news of the demise of Osama bin Laden has been felt to bring a measure and a form of closure
for thousands affected by the acts of terror over the past decade. It is crucial that the acts of terror
in any form, including those masterminded by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, be challenged and
overcome.

However, the death of Osama bin Laden is no cause for gloating, or unthinking jubilation. The biblical
record is clear in Ezekiel 18:32: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord GOD.
Turn, then, and live.” We are therefore not called to relish the death of anyone. We are called to
grieve the fact that turning and living was not chosen in the first place by Al Qaeda, who chose the
way of death, but also to grieve all deadly spirals of violence and fear, hatred and prejudice with all
their various causes.

Learning to find a way of understanding the causes of the way of violence and death can, by grace,
lead to a measure of God given forgiveness of enemies, as the Gospel calls us to do: Matthew 5:43-
44, John 13:34, Luke 6:27-28, Romans 12:14, 1 Corinthians 4:12, Romans 12:17-21, 1 Peter 3:9, 1
John 2:9-10. We need insight under God, rather than vengeance. Vengeance belongs to God
(Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30). An eye for an eye (Matthew 5:38) and the whole world goes blind.
This means jingoism and enjoyment of the death of Osama bin Laden can find no place in Christian
prayer or Christian thinking.

We can do no better than end with the words of a Christian leader who gave his life for the cause of
justice, freedom and abundant life for all people: “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives,
but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”–Martin Luther King, Jr.

++Brown Turei
++David Moxon
Archbishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia

The main objective of the fortnight is to promote a ‘swap’ – swap your regular tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate, or other products to a Fair Trade alternative. This year you can upload a photo of yourself with your swap to the Fairtrade Fortnight website for a chance to win prizes.

Over the fortnight, Wellington is host to some awareness-raising events: a photo exhibition, visiting coffee producer from Ethiopia, World Fair Trade Day Festival and scavenger hunt, a celebrity online challenge, World Cafe as well as Oxfam Coffee Breaks and chocolate tastings.

Download the Wellington Events flyer for more information on these events.

Trade Aid and the New Zealand Coffee Roasters Association are bringing Tadesse Meskela to New Zealand to speak at a public event in Auckland on Saturday May 14, and in Wellington May 20. Tadesse is a fierce advocate of fairtrade from the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia and has made it his business to get fairtrade Ethiopian coffee into the world market using his position as general manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.

AUCKLAND: Sat 14 May, free coffee from 10am, Talk begins 11am, Four Seasons Restaurant, AUT, 55 Wellesley St.

WELLINGTON: Fri 20 May, 6pm, Trade Aid Wellington store cnr Bond & Victoria Streets.

For more info on the fortnight, see Fair Trade Wellington or the official Fairtrade Fortnight site.

His public talks, entitled “Climate Change: a scientific, moral and legal issue” will be presented in Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington, Dunedin, Gore and Christchurch over a 10-day period.

James Hansen is a distinguished American atmospheric physicist. He holds positions in several leading American research institutions, including Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He is the author of Storms of my Grandchildren, and is probably best known for being one of the first scientists to bring global warming to the world’s attention, delivering his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in 1988.

Thurs 12th May: Auckland
6pm: public lecture
University of Auckland Business School OGGB4, Level 0, Owen Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road

Fri 13th May: Palmerston North
1.30 – 2.45 pm public lecture, Japan Lecture Theatre, Massey University

Mon 16th May: Wellington
5.45pm public lecture Rutherford House, welcomed by Mayor Celia Wade-Brown

Tues 17th May: Wellington
8.45 am – 5.30 pm IPS Symposium “Future of Coal,” Victoria University
(he will speak 10.20 to 11.30, on panel 4pm -5.30pm).

Wed 18th May: Dunedin
5.30 – 7pm public lecture, St David’s Lecture Hall

Thurs 19th May: Gore
2 pm public meeting hosted by Mataura Landcare group, Gore District Council

Friday 20th May: Christchurch
5.30 pm public talk Canterbury Horticultural Centre, 57 Riccarton Avenue (in Hagley Park). Hosted by Kennedy Graham, Green MP.

Saturday 21st May: Auckland
Daytime event http://planetfestival.org.nz

Good Magazine recently wrote about the marketing of Earth Day and how it’s become a way for companies to get us to buy more things we don’t need, only in the biodegradable versions.

So, as an alternative to this ‘Green’ consumerism, Good Magazine started a tradition of meaningful Earth Day pledges:

Two years ago, I made a pledge give up red meat from Earth Day until the end of the year, the idea being I could effect a meaningful change—not for the whole Earth, necessarily, but at least for my own life. I ate almost exclusively vegetarian from mid-April through December, and although I now eat meat again, I eat a lot less of it than I used to.

I’m not delusional. My actions, in and of themselves, are almost totally inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. But they did give me a structure with which to think about my relationship with the environment everyday, thus turning Earth Day into a springboard for action and reflection—all year.

They’re doing pledges again this year and you can join them! The aim is not only to give meaning to this day, but to continually improve our relationships with the world around us.

What will you do differently for the rest of the year, or longer?

“Observing a National Day of Prayer will allow us to acknowledge the uncertainty of life for so many people. We want to offer the opportunity for people to use our sacred places where people may pray and be encouraged to intercede for those who have lost so much. We recognise that the deep loss and pain will continue into the future as families and communities grieve for loved ones and the loss of familiar communities.

The timing has been deliberately chosen as it immediately follows Easter when we celebrate the God of ultimate love and empathy who shares the pain of the cross. We are strengthened by the God who offers ultimate hope through the gift of resurrection and new beginnings
arising out of despair.

At midday we invite participating churches to share a brief liturgy which may include:

• a brief theological statement concerning our hope in the crucified and risen Christ
• an appropriate Scripture, such as Psalm 23, Romans 8: 38 – 39, Matthew 11: 28 – 30.
• The Lords Prayer
• the song, Morning Light – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV69zhtw5wE

We commend this opportunity to gather nationally and offer our churches to provide the sanctuary many seek at this time.

We also believe that this opportunity will continue to encourage us to give to Christchurch and other relief agency work in the Pacific rim in whatever way we can.

++ Brown Turei ++ David Moxon