Horticulture and Agriculture

Straight from the office of small-minded New Zealanders comes John Keys’ fantastic idea, a ‘global alliance’ to promote horticulture and agriculture. Apparently he and his heroin-addict lady friend, the feared East German überhag Helen Clark, have so disappointed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they, MFA, have decided to argue that all peoples have the right to get high. John Key sees this as a new opportunity to bludge money off other people so his chums can disprove the existence of the sun and probably convinced himself it was his idea while stoned and arranging for yours truly to get arrested for possession of marijuana. Maybe he wants to research the reason Kurt Wendelborn’s farts smell the way they do – mutant phospholipase allele? We’ve already done the math, the geographics, the genetics, the biochemistry, and the grain bowl analysis – dirty poo chewers from Germany with a link to the temple of Baal and the home of Babylon, east of Palestine which is east of Egypt which is west of the place that that Jewish guy called Palestine.

The consumerist version of the Global Alliance for Peace, an Inconvenient Truth (I was right, George Washington lied — so when is it okay to not say anything?), and the sensible idea to not allow any genetic modification but in flowers until we have people check the flowers for negative auras?

Quit stealing my stuff.  Give it back.

Collectives and Cooperatives

The head of the collective bargains for the members to be able to choose between three or four weetbix for breakfast in red bowls.

The cooperative allows a specialist member to stock the breakfast cereals so that other members may choose.

While driving, all members of the collective must turn the same direction at the same time.

Persons: n., pl. identical members of a collective.

People: n., pl. unique members of a cooperative.

Whole Earth, the Environment, and Nations

While James Lovekock’s Gaia hypothesis might over-emphasise an anthopomorphic view of a closed ecosystem, almost three thousand years after the founding of Rome and the pax romana, we find ourselves in a situation which requires pax universalis and a whole earth policy to allay the effects of greedy optimisation and a lack of admirable foresight.

The environment is both fragile and robust. Moth species can mutate from one colour extreme to the other in short order, insecticide resistance can develop in multiple manners in under fifty years, and the albedo of the planet can dampen temperature fluctuations and the effects of solar anomalies.

The most prevalent form of government in the current era is the representative democracy. Ideally, the inhabitants and citizens of a nation should be able to select those people whom they trust to make decisions of state on their behalf. The school teacher and bank clerk should not be required to research the positions of foreign nations on pollution offset pricing, rather, they should have confidence that their elected representatives will act in a manner consistent with their interests and the interests of the future inhabitants and citizens of that country.

While most countries in the global economy are price-takers, each country maintains a prerogative to present a unique and worthwhile position and opinion. Throwing stones aside, perhaps David could have reasoned with Goliath.

The impact of globalisation on human rights

On Thursday, 24th April 2008, at about 6pm in the Stone Lecture Theare of the University of Auckland School of Law, Professor Hazledine and Mr. al Attar of the University of Auckland presented a stellar forum on the complex issues facing humanity with respect to the impact of globalisation on human rights.