Tuesday, 13 August 2013

All those people and all that work behind Rosa Parks...

Rosa Parks
I love this article.   It's about Rosa Parks - the woman who apparently tipped the fortunes of the American Civil Rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on the bus. Or rather, it's NOT about her so much as it is about  the many many poeple who had been, and were, working really hard in the civil rights movement at the time.  Without them, Rosa Parks would probably never had done what she did.  And if she had, nothing would have happened as a result of it. 

Understanding that helps to give me hope because frankly a lot of activism is pretty unrewarding and tiring.You do things and nothing happens or perhaps, very little happens.  Many give up and decide they've done their dash, perhaps because they've burnt out or got sick or become too cynical.

It helps me enormously to know that every little bit does actually count and that we can't all be Rosa Parks.  Most of us will be the nameless people in the background who set the situation up.  In Parks' case, there were those who convinced her to join the cause, trained her up, worked with white communities to sow seeds that sprouted and grew strong when Parks did her thing. There were the groups who raised money for the cause, the lawyers who moved in to defend Rosa and so on.  There were countless hours, months and years of activism going on before the change happened.  Who knew when or how or even if the change would happen, but  those involved kept on trying to change things because they simply believed that it was the right thing to do and that it needed doing.

So, while it seems that we (ie all human beings on this planet) keep on walking into an environmental crisis of rather alarming proportions, it is also clear that we have to keep working with hope.  No matter what we do to help raise awareness or make a difference - even in very small ways - it is helping change the system so that one day an environmental Rosa Parks incident might just create the change we are working for.

I only hope that this happens soon (although I have to accept that perhaps it won't).  In the meantime though I'm just going to take whatever (small and insignificant) steps I can in the knowledge that it all counts!  It's important to do it even when it seems hopeless - just as the civil rights cause must have felt back in Rosa Parks' time.

Organised activisim is more effective!

I've just been talking with some people about being an activist, and I realised as I did that that perhaps my take home message is it pays dividends to be organised when you are an activist - at least the kind of activist taking part in political processes. 

What every political activist needs!
I reflected a bit on this in a previous post, but realise now that there is a bit more to it. 
As I've mentioned it is good to get many submissions into something that you want to see change.  This has worked for cycling advocates at local government level in Christchurch, However it has made no difference whatsoever at national government level over the last couple of years, whether that be around the GCSB bill, the Government Policy Statement on Transport or changes to the RMA and even things associated with CERA.

Timing probably also matters:  Possibly the government will be more tractable next year when they are facing an election (although I"m also sure that they won't put up anything contentious as they have in years 1 and 2 of this election cycle).  Likewise, getting the CCC to change its mind may be easier in an election year, if you can prove that a lot of people feel this way, for example!

There is also the small problem of the enormous amount of work that has to go into a submission, particularly if you have to do the whole thing yourself - read the appropriate documents (and often to write an effective submission it is helpful to know quite a lot of background (like how transport planning works in the case of supporting cycling or walking), think about the implications and then gather evidence to support your comments.  Being linked to a group of people with similar interests can help to spread the load and can also mean you can collect lots of ideas to support your viewpoint and indeed the ideas might help you form your viewpoint. 

Of course, those of us who are activists also know that there is way more that we could be doing but of course we simply can't do it.  I often see a call for me to write submission on topics that I do care about and I know matter, but I have to just think "hopefully someone else out there is looking out for that because right now I just can't."   In this latter case, if I do have a bit of time and I have access to some background information, then I might put something together in my own words or send in something to say I support that submission. But I won't if that information is not there because I simply don't have time.   So this says something about how useful I find it being networked with people who have different interests and who can keep me up with the play on what his happening.

These days, social media and the internet can help with this kind of organisation, although it is also clear that these need to be treated with an awareness that they may not be entirely private!

Tuesday, 6 August 2013

This is not the time to get depressed and give up!

I read this, this morning and couldn't actually read it right through (and I"m not recommending you attempt it either.  You can the gist by looking at it very quickly.  The unashamed stupidity of the world amazed, me ... in a bad way.

The trouble is that increasingly I'm aware that all this scary information doesn't change things. .. on its own, that is. Also,  pretty much anyone reading this blog is likely to be aware of the environmental issues facing us and  this post and this post, outline something of how the social structures that we live in help keep it that way.

Sometimes when I look at all this, I'm sad.  I've had quite a few conversations with other people who are also sad and scared about what they see happening.  I find that many of us are feeling lost and little, and paralysed by the enormity of the issues, and it's a heavy burden to carry.  But at the same time, our environmental crisis is NOT and never will be a spectator sport, as this interesting website puts it and our unpleasant feelings actually won't go away if we just do nothing. In short, they are not a reason to avoid engaging with the issues as they unfold or avoiding doing something to   It is not going to help anyone (even ourselves) to keep burying our head in the sand and hoping that the crisis will pass if we stop looking at it. It won't! 

For me at the moment there is hope at the end of this talk by Jared Diamond and in this talk by Johan Rockstom.  As Diamond puts it, just about ANYTHING that we take action on could make a difference in the long term and might help 'bend the lines' as Rockstrom puts it.

It's is also good to recognise that sadness arises because the world is actually also a source of joy and love, as well as worry and fear.  Recognising the joy and love, and the goodness in people is a good reason for looking the issues directly in the eye and to keep trying to make a difference.

These things can give meaning to the actions that we choose to take whether that is leaving the car at home wherever possible, minimising our consumption, learning how to garden,  helping out a neighbour, finding ways to build and join collective actions working to improve the cohesion and resilience of our communities or helping people understand the power of collective action - whatever that action might be, life is not a spectator sport, and right now, this is life in the early 21st century.  Go for it and learn how to enjoy the action.