Wisdom Of The Elders - Kotahitanga

What's It Worth To You?

 

A Facebook dialogue in the past couple of days, about money, energy, exchange, things being "free"...

Me/Miseducation Nation: Seriously folks: I like doing the ferreting to keep this page updated-I used to do this when I was a Radio New Zealand news writer/editor & we do need one place for people to get info, share news, resources etc. But it takes time & I need some income. Who'd be willing to contribute $$ to have me update this page twice a day, 7 days a week? I need $200/wk to make this viable. What do you say - is it worth it to you?

Response: You're saying ya want us to pay you to maintain your face book? I think you're fucking high.

Me/Miseducation Nation: nah... not high - broke!...providing a service, and wanting to know if you value it enough to recompense me for my time (I have a 7 year old son to feed and house and am, like many, un/underemployed!)... here's my qualifications... www.metamind-creative.com

Response:  Nope. Not a bit. Shut it down if its too tough. What you do- just like me... is provide your own point a view. Its YOUR luxury-not mine. I read your posts- i make an effort to understand your point of view- the time i give - is all i've got for you. Ya wanna pay me for posting? My shit is infinitely more interesting. I have a 13 year old. I live on virtually nothing- but do i suppose my ranting outta be a paid for thing? haaa haaa not fuggen likely. If ya cant afford to do it- stop. What you've been posting- you've been posting FOR you. Dont kid your self man- we all have our own points of view.
          
Me/Miseducation Nation: Actually ______ - its not my page - its TFTs and he started it hoping lots of people would post stuff from all over the country; he asked me if I would co-admin it with him (us both having been kicked off NBC's Education Nation facebook page...)... 

And I dont know how long you've been here, but since the beginning I've been doing the bulk of the posting and I've been careful to put stuff from everywhere, so that people know what's going on in other communities. I DONT POST PRO-REFORM STUFF - this page was not intended to be a neutral zone... 

Those of us working against deform need a central clearing house of information, need to find out whats going on so we're not reinventing the wheel and duplicating effort, and also need to share our limited resources - data, ideas, moral support, media contacts etc - where we can... and I am doing here what I once had a job doing for Radio New Zealand... If I wanted to, I could spend all day here putting new info up... there's plenty out there in the most obscure places and Knowledge is Power... 

I think I give value in what I do here - I've had plenty of feedback to that effect from various people around the country whom I have been able to help in their own deform pushback efforts... if you dont value it, that's fine... and its cool if people dont want to support these efforts... I was hoping to be able to continue to do more, but I need to make an income for us and time I spend here is time not spent on other income-hunting activities... 

I think stopping this deform agenda is pretty much the number one priority we should be focusing on because its not about ed reform - its about completing the process where this country becomes a plutarchy from top to bottom... which is why I am so passionate about this... and I dont think there is anything wrong with trying to put food on the table while working for a worthwhile cause...

           
Response: Hell nah Bro- Its a wonderful thing! I LIKE what you do. Swear to darwin that's true... but why are ya doing it? To make a profit? Look man, i have no beef with you or your message. I read your posts with some... frequency. Its a little uh... like pancakes and syrup to me- not... not good- but a leans a bit towards monotony. That's my opinion. You need to decide if your message is worth it- not me. Right? I mean- that's tyhe point of being free. Don't think i aint listening- but i wont be paying for the education. There's 5 million face bookers- and you think yours oughtta charge admission? Why? Becaue you take the time to inform me of what you think is wrong with the world? Look- you perform a service. No doubt. But does the value lie in your having the ability to spread YOUR message as you see fit? Or in me consuming it? If your qwest- your enlightment and unblindfolding all of us isnt enough... you might make a buck driving a bus. Ya see what I'm saying? My page has info- philosophy- art- music- la la la- it has shit on it too- I am no less diligent than you... but i get that there is as much value in me be able to speak my peice- as in anyone agreeing, or... uh... 'subscribing' to me. Face book is a free gig- That is at the core of it- ya wanna blog for money? Find the right place to do it. You're smart- well informed- et cetera- but i aint asking ya to pay pal me donations- because I potentially 'educate' ya. I wont pay cash for what ya do. That's my answer to you. I will take the time to see what youre up to- I will use the information you provide to make my own decisions. I really dunno what else ya could ask of me- Its all about- being Free.
           
Me/Miseducation Nation:  its cool, ______... I am just looking/searching for ways to make ends meet to feed my kid and keep a roof over our heads...

In the indigenous way, people would trade stuff with me for what I do - its an energy exchange, an acknowledgement of value... In this world, money is the symbol of the energy exchange...

 

I dont, for example, believe in volunteering in the way this world works - see here for thoughts on that...http://sahilachangebringer.blogspot.com/2010/05/volunteering-service-or-exploitation.html...

Life is a huge circle of energy moving around, and at some point the energy I put out will come back to me (and it wont be directly reciprocal), but I do have a responsibility to do what I can to take the initiative in that... 

I'm getting a respectable number of daily hits on my blog, but I wont monetise that and subject my readers to advertising they have not chosen to search out/be exposed to... 

Nothing is "free" in the world - natural or man-made. Whatever and everything that happens is a transformation/exchange of energy, and I am wanting to live more in that realisation... 

I do this "work" because it needs to be done, if only as an act of "witnessing" ... but its not enough to say (especially in this world of crass and stubborn denial of our interdependence) that it has/is its own reward and it would be out of integrity for me to pretend, given our circumstances, that it does and its all OK...
           
Me/Miseducation Nation:  Actually _____ - I owe you a "thank you" for being the impetus that has made me really think this through... 

Maori have a tradition (as do most other cultures) where you leave a "Koha" - love offering - at any gathering or as a recognition of an energy exchange between yourself and anyone who is doing something for you... 

I used to teach meditation/spiritual development classes in New Zealand and Australia and didnt set a fee because I didnt want lack of money to be the reason keeping people from participating.   I asked people to leave a Koha if they felt so inclined... people left money, incense, CDs, fruit and vegetables, cakes and cookies, silk scarves etc... 

Here in Seattle I set a fee for an 8-week series of 2-hour workshops I run in Fall - a mere $5 per person per time. But again, I couldnt make ends meet, and so one day I asked my adult students to leave what they thought the time and energy and knowledge was worth... they all started leaving $30 and $40 per session... a good lesson there for me in how I undervalue my contribution to the greater good, and how I "martyr" myself and sacrifice our welfare in the mistaken belief that I am doing good for others. 

There's a coffee shop here called Mosaic, which offers food and drink at no set price - you pay what you think its worth... some days I pay what I know is the going rate, some days I dont have any money to pay so I dont, and other days I feel affluent and secure enough to pay 2-3 times what is the going rate... 

But the point is - none of it is "free" - its all energy being transformed... just as Facebook isnt free really - how do you think the creator became a billionaire? Off our energy and time and connections, which he was able to translate to valuable data and to trade with other businesses...

Maori Prayer For Peace...

Kia hora te Marino is an ancient Maori prayer spoken by seamen before a voyage.

LYRICS:

Kia hora te marino
kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
kia tere te karohirohi
i mua i tou huarahi
Haere e tama haere

“May Peace Be Widespread”

Let peace be widespread
Let the sea glisten like the greenstone
May your path be straight
Like the flight of the dove
Go in peace and with my blessings

What Is Intelligence?

Manu Aluli Meyer reveals what quantum physics and indigenous culture have in common, as well as her vision of a Free Hawai'i...

From The Same Director...

Eagle Vs Shark:

"Finding love was never so...awkward."

EAGLE VS. SHARK, directed by Taika Waititi (Two Cars, One Night and BOY), is a wry comedy that chronicles the quirky romance of two awkward misfits, Lily, a shy fast-food restaurant cashier, and her crush, Jarrod, an electronic store clerk. 

On the day Lily gets fired from her job at Meaty Boy, she musters up the courage to attend Jarrod's annual "come as your favorite animal" costume party. 

The dressy affair sparks the beginnings of a romance as well as a small journey for the pair to Jarrod's quiet hometown, in which Jarrod plans to seek revenge on an old nemesis and where Lily unwittingly finds herself stranded amongst Jarrod's family of eccentrics.

Two Cars, One Night:

Nominated for a 2005 (77th) Academy Award in the "Best Live Action Short" category. 

Boy...

Contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand film...

The year is 1984, and on the rural East Coast of New Zealand, Thriller is changing kids lives. 

Inspired by the Oscar nominated Two Cars, One Night, BOY is the hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale about heroes, magic and Michael Jackson.

Boy is a dreamer who loves Michael Jackson. He lives with his brother Rocky, a tribe of deserted cousins and his Nan.

Boy's other hero, his father, Alamein, is the subject of Boys' fantasies, and he imagines him as a deep sea diver, war hero and a close relation of Michael Jackson (he can even dance like him). 

In reality hes in the can for robbery.
 

When Alamein returns home after 7 years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential and learn to get along without the hero he had been hoping for.

Starring Te Aho Eketone-Whitu, James Rolleston, Taika Waititi

Directed/Written by Taika Waititi ('Eagle Vs Shark', TV's 'Flight of the Conchords')

www.boythemovie.co.nz

Kahu Paikea Apirana...

What happens when old traditions meet new realities?

We Don't Know How Lucky We Are...

Seriously, we don't know how lucky we are...

Despite some challenges, we  - my son and I - still have a warm, dry roof over our heads, healthy and plentiful food on the table, clothes on our backs, transport, access to education, medical care and technology to gather information and to communicate with others...

I am grateful for these blessings as well as:

• my healthy, happy children
• our friends 
• our cat companions
• relative peace
• relative freedom of thought, movement and speech
• relative choice
• time to use as I please

We are some of the relatively few fortunate human beings on the planet...

If you're reading this, you too are one of the privileged...

What are you grateful for, in your life?

What do you take for granted, as your right?

If it's your right, surely it's also the right of every man, woman and child alive?

New Zealand comedian John Clarke as his alter ego Fred Dagg, addressing the United Nations...
(the clip contains cameos from some of New Zealand's better known personalities, including a Prime Minister...  brownie points - and a chocolate fish! - if you go to the comments section and name as many people as you can)

Lyrics:

The New Version

Source: Album: Fred Dagg (Anthology) Released 2000

At the dawn of the day, in the great Southern Ocean
Where the world’s greatest fish was being landed
And the boat they were pulling it into was sinking
And the sea was quite lumpy, and the weather was foul
And the bloke with the map was as pissed as an owl
And the boys called out “Maui, ya clown, let it go”
In the noise he reached down for his grandmother’s jawbone
 and he winked at his mates and he said
“Boys, we don’t know how lucky we are”
“I have a feeling I have stumbled on something substantial.”

 

We don’t know how lucky we are
We don’t know how lucky we are
We don’t know how lucky we are
We don’t know how lucky we are

I was speaking to a mate of mine, just the other day
A bloke called Bruce Bayliss who, lives up our way
He’s been round the world on an 8th army do for a year, more or less
I said “Describe the global position, Bruce”
He said “Fred, it’s a mess.
We don’t know how lucky we are in this country.
We don’t know how lucky we are.

We don’t know how lucky we are
We don’t know how lucky we are

There’s a guy I know who lives in town
I see him about once a year I suppose
He’s had a coronary since Easter
He’s got a haemorrhage in his ear
He went bankrupt a couple of weeks back
And now his wife’s left him too
I said “You’re looking hot mate,
You’re looking clear, what are ya gonna do?”
He said “We don’t know how lucky we are
To live in this joint mate"

We don’t know how lucky we are

We don’t know how lucky we are

So when things are looking really bad
And you’re thinking of giving it a way
Remember, New Zealand’s a cracker
And I reckon come what may
If things get appallingly bad
And we’re all under constant attack
Remember, we want to see good clean ball
And for god’s sakes, feed your backs

We don’t how fortunate we are to have that place
We don’t know how propitious are the circumstances.

We don’t know how lucky we are, mate
We don’t know how lucky we are

We don’t know how lucky we are, get it right
We just don’t realise how fortunate we are
We have no idea, the luck, we possess, collectively
We just don’t know how lucky we all are. Full stop.

 

The Original Version

Source: "Fred Dagg Live", performing at the Christchurch town hall, about 1975.

I was speaking to a mate of mine
just the other day
A guy called Bruce Bayliss actually
who lives up our way
He's been living in Europe
for the year, more or less
I said "How was Europe, Bruce?"
He says "Fred, it's a mess"

We don't know how lucky we are, mate.
We don't know how lucky we are!

I was down the Plough and Chequebook
the night before last
There's a guy down there on the floor
with his brain at half-mast
I said "You're looking really bad mate
your eyes look like strings"
He says "Get me an eight will you please
I can't see a thing"

We don't know how lucky we are, mate.
We don't know how lucky we are!

Me stock agent's got a beach place
where he spends most of his days
His wife bit the dust down there last year
got eaten by a couple of crays
And his two littlest daughters
got killed by a whale
I said "Are you going down there this year mate?"
He says "Fred, right on the nail"

"We don't know how fortunate we are to have that place
We don't know how propitious are the circumstances Frederick"

So if things are looking really bad
you're thinking of givin' it away
Remember New Zealand's a cracker
and I reckon come what may
If things get appallingly bad
and we all get atrociously poor
If we stand in the queue with our hats on 

we can borrow a few million more
 

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are

We don't know how lucky we are, mate.
We don't know how lucky we are!

 

A Kiwi Goodnight...

Lyrics:

Maori: Hine E Hine

E tangi ana Koe
Hine, E Hine!
Kua ngenge ana koe
Hine, E Hine!
Kati to pouri ra
Noho i te Aroha
Te ngakau o te Matua
Hine, E Hine!

E Hari to moe moea
Hine, E Hine!
Marama ahua
Hine, E Hine!
I roto i to moenga
Mehemea he Marama
Ka tae mai te Reinga
Hine, E Hine!

English: Maiden O Maiden:
Plaintive all through the night -
Hine, E Hine!
Weeping till morning light -
Hine, E Hine!
From my care why try to leap
There is love for you
Mother's arms their strength will keep
Hine, E Hine!
See where there comes the morn
Hine, E Hine!
Long rays of early dawn
Hine, E Hine!
Shining to Reinga far
Where thy noble grandsires are
Nestle Aroha!
Hine, E Hine!

They That Go Down To The Sea In Ships

Herbert Whitton Sumsion - They That Go Down To The Sea In Ships:

Psalms, 107:23-30, KJV:

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; 

These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. 

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. 

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. 

Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 

He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 

Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: 

Lyrics:
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee"
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that big ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the Gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang,
could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing
And ev'ry man knew, as the captain did too
'twas the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'
"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya"
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
"Fellas, it's bin good t'know ya!"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
and the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee"
"Superior," they said, "never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early" 


Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic:

Anna Leah - The Wahine Storm Song:

The Broken-hearted Warriors...

This is what colonialism has done all over the world, for thousands of years...

Colonialism has a new name now - globalisation...

And the results are the same - exploitation, cultural genocide, destruction of individuals and communities and social dysfunction...

The only ones who benefit are the colonisers...

What price trade and "prosperity"?

Untouchable, Unstoppable Kiwi Girls

Kiwi comedy, satire, singing and yodelling as only twin lesbians know how to do:

Sand Dancer

There's something about Kiwis and how we do life...

Risking It All, Living It All, Loving It All In The Now...

Kiwi master guitar maker/player/singer Graham Wardrop:

You Load 16 Tons & What Do You Get?

I wonder how many people think about this, as their homes and businesses are warmed and kept operating by coal-fired power and they complain about the bill each month?

I wonder if they ever see in their minds' eyes the gouging out of the earth and the destruction of the environment...

A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on March 31 captures a rare cloud-free glimpse of the Panian Coalfield, one of the largest coal mines in Asia and one of three coal operations on Semirara Island in the Philippines. The Semirara Mining Corporation, which operates the coal field, uses open-pit methods in which rock and soil are removed to reach coal seams below. In this image, released by NASA, several huge piles of rock and other mining debris can be seen ringing the northern half of the pit, with the dark coal seams visible along the southern wall of the mine. Also visible are plumes of mining sediment washing into the Sulu Sea.

And the death that comes to many who are trapped in small communities with no other way to earn their living?

 

Globally, mining companies profit from coal mining to the tune of $13.6Billion per year... 

What's the price of a human life? 

Rest in Peace - 

all 12,000 men and boys 

who die in mining 'accidents' each year...

Smooth Sounds From The Land Of The Long White Cloud...

New Zealand singer Malcolm McNeill - smooth... 









The Shaker Song:





I Never Had Much Money:

Whirimako Black: "E Te Kai" & "My Funny Valentine"

Two songs (in Maori) from one of my favourite New Zealand/Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud) singers - Whirimako Black...

This song is about Tanimahuta - the god of the forest - and the honor of this god, the honor of food, collecting food, the source of the food, preparation, and family; also the honor of the land and where you come from.   It is an old Tohue waiata (song).