Happy Mothers Day!

Ah mothers day. A day where many people celebrate who has cared or looked after them. Or it's a day you think is a capitalist money making day. Or you don't care. As Stuff share: "The concept of celebrating motherhood dates to the ancient Greeks, who paid tribute to Rhea (the mother of the gods) and motherhood in springtime, which was considered the most fertile time of the year. We owe the modern celebratory day to an American woman called Anna Jarvis, who campaigned to make it official in remembrance of her mother. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day a national holiday. Ironically, Jarvis later tried to stop Mother's Day after it became commercialised and more than just a day of sentiment."

This mothers day Statistics New Zealand have some excellent facts to share. In New Zealand the average baby weight over the pass decade was 3.5 kg. Considering a normal baby weight is 2.7-4 kg, this is excellent. In 2008, 87 percent of all women also thought their health was generally good, very good, or excellent.

Unfortunately many mothers still feel overworked. According to a independent AMP research report, while fathers are doing more house work than they use to mothers still feel they aren't doing their fair share. As for solo mothers who happen to be beneficiaries, they're facing discrimination from their own government. What's also startling is that they face it from someone who's been a beneficiary herself. Paula Bennett also plans to force mothers into work that may not be appropriate for them. Many mothers want to work and get good pay so they can provide for their families. Cutting the benefit to mothers who wont comply puts them and their childs lives in jeopardy.

There is still discrimination against gay couples who can't adopt. Considering there are already gay couples in New Zealand raising children and many who'd make great parents it's a shame they still face discrimination. Discrimination from groups like familyfirst who believe in only putting married heterosexual parent families first. We also have real problems with child poverty and child abuse in this country which are both interconnected.

The good thing is that these problems are solvable. As a society New Zealand does not have to be this way. It can support our parents, mothers, fathers, maori, european, gay, straight, disabled and everything in between. The children of Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world do not have to suffer the problems of our past.

I hope you'll have a good Mothers day, everyday.

"Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved." - Erich Fromm

Peace, Tranquility and Total Harmony

Just felt like sharing some soothing trance with you readers. Trance music is one of my interests you know. =) Where ever you are it could pay to have a listen and let yourself relax. No I'm not on drugs. You don't have to take drugs to enjoy music.

Water Poverty: How to combat it (from the WHO)

DEVASTATION: This startling picture of the White House, by Saddington & Baynes for WaterAid and End Water Poverty, marks a meeting of 30 nations to discuss the problem of water poverty.

Four days after my last post discussing water and oil, the World Health Organisation released its annual sanitation and drinking water report.

"There is no doubt that if ministers and leaders had to endure these conditions in their own backyard they would take immediate action. Today they have the opportunity to do so and help bring an end to this scandalous crisis." - Barbara Frost (on Stuff)

The Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) (warning, 23.7 MB)

The report found that diarrhoeal disease in children has a greater impact than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined. Improving sanitation and drinking water could reduce the death of 2.2 million children a year. Sanitation would save a lot of money for these developing countries. Money that could be spent on healthcare, food, protection and education. There is four reccomendations in it:

Recommendation 1 - Developing countries and external support agencies to demonstrate greater political commitment to sanitation and drinking-water, given their central role in human and economic development.

Reccomendation 2 - External support agencies and developing countries to consider how to better target resources to accelerate progress towards meeting the sanitation and drinking-water MDG(Millenium Development Goal) target.

Reccomendation 3 - Developing countries and external support agencies to strengthen national and subnational systems to plan, implement and monitor the delivery of sanitation and drinking-water services, especially to unserved populations.

Reccomendation 4 - All stakeholders to work in partnership to support the development and implementation of national plans for sanitation and drinkingwater, using their particular skills and resources and aligning with national systems.

So what do these reccomendations mean? What are supporting agencies, stakeholders, subnational plans and the MDG target? Do these words really mean anything? Let's have a look. Specifically at page 70, where they expand on these reccomendations. However instead of writing in UN english, I'll be writing in plain english or at least trying to.

Recommendation 1 - There needs to be a bigger commitment to clean and drinkable water. Specifically from developing countries and any supporting agencies like the Red Cross or United Nations Development program. This is because water's essential for health and their businesses. Here's how you do it:

• Increase money and effort into sanitation and getting more drinkable water. This is done through developing countries and external support agencies, like the ones mentioned. (R1a)
• Find how much resources(eg. money, volunteers, vehicles) you need for drinking water and sanitation compared to other social services. This way you can use them more efficiently. For instance, if your village has two cars available, use one to pick clean water up early in the morning from the well. Then use it to do whatever the village needs done the rest of the day. Have the other one reserved as an ambulance. (R1b)
• Convince the people affected by water poverty, mostly the government and citizens, that having more drinking water and sanitation will boost the economy. That it's worth working towards. (R1c)

Reccomendation 2 - Think of how to use resources more effectively. This is so a country can reduce by half people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation(Millenium Development Goal). This means:

• Have your highest authorities discuss resources available for basic sanitation and drinking water for people without access to them. (R2a)
• Measure your progress on reducing the people without clean water and basic sanitation by half. Have set goals per year. It's a bit like going on a diet. You're a 160 kg overweight man trying to get down to 80 kg. For your first year you aim to lose 10 kg, a year after that 15 kg etc until you're down to 80. (R2b)

Reccomendation 3 - Strengthen national and regional systems to plan, implement and monitor the delivery of clean drinking water and sanitation. Make sure this is done especially for people without access to clean water and sanitation.

• In country development plans, make sure there are clear roles in institutes responsible for delivering sanitation and drinking water. The leading institutions and roles are accountable for delivery. This gives a clear frame work to work in and wont cause confusion. (R3a)
• Make sure that accurate and reliable data is available for regions. This means nobody's slacking off or making up figures. (R3b)
• Prepare and implement plans to use people available who will get sanitation and clean drinking water. This means who will be cleaners, water deliverers and who'll be responsible for maintaining certain facilities. (R3c)

Reccomendation 4 - A partnership of people with the needed skills and resources to implementing national clean drinking water plans.

• Have external support agencies find ways to deliver clean water and sanitation. Let them partner with investors wanting economical benefits or organisations that have money to support them. Don't reveal who they are. Their role is to give money and follow their legal contract to give it. (R4a)
• Have the countries and citizens work with external support agencies to lower by half people without clean water or sanitation. (R4b)

Of course these are only reccomendations. Some developing countries might try something completely different. But I hope these developing countries will get access to clean and safe drinking water. It will be a cornerstone for peace. For more information on Water Poverty, you can check out the WHO's booklet: The Right to Water

“Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and, therefore, a basic human right. Contaminated water jeopardizes both the physical and social health of all people. It is an affront to human dignity.” - Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General.

ANZAC day: Red Poppies, White Poppies and the White Feather

There's been some controversy recently about Peace Movement Aotearoa selling white poppies before the Returned Services Association's red poppy day. The money sold from white poppies goes to peace scholarships. These peace scholarships were started by Professor Cynthia Enloe where the scholarship would go to students studying the effects of war on society. The money sold from red poppies goes to the RSA's welfare services. This is a controversial situation. There's been quite a bit of animosity from some war veterans and the RSA over what Peace Movement Aotearoa has been doing. The White Poppy has also been compared to the White Feather, often thought of as a symbol of cowardice. I want to prove that The White Poppy doesn't have to be gawked at. I also want to prove that the White Feather is the complete opposite of the coward's symbol it's been made out to be. But first let's look at the Red Poppy.



The Red Poppy

What is it?

It is an international symbol of rememberance.

Where is it from?

As the RSA explain to us: It was verses by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918), a Canadian Medical Officer, which began the intriguing process by which the Flanders Poppy became immortalised worldwide as the symbol of remembrance:




































Moina Michael, moved by John McCrae replied to him after his death:

"We Shall Keep the Faith"

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet-to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With all who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valour led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy red
We wear in honour of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

Madame E. Guérin, conceived the idea of widows manufacturing artificial poppies in the devastated areas of Northern France which then could be sold by veterans' organisations worldwide for their own veterans and dependants as well as the benefit of destitute French children. Throughout 1920-21, Guérin and her representatives approached veteran organisations' in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and urged them to adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

So what is the White Poppy?


The White Poppy

What is it?

It is an international symbol of peace.


Where is it from?

As the BBC's well-researched rememberance page explains: The White Poppy was first introduced by the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1933 and was intended as a lasting symbol for peace and an end to all wars.

Worn on Armistice Day, now Remembrance Sunday, the White Poppy was produced by the Co-operative Wholesale Society because the Royal British Legion had refused to be associated with its manufacture.

While the White Poppy was never intended to offend the memory of those who died in the Great War, many veterans felt that its significance undermined their contribution and the lasting meaning of the red poppy. Such was the seriousness of this issue that some women lost their jobs in the 1930s for wearing white poppies. The White Poppy Appeal is now run by the Peace Pledge Union.

Professor Paul Gough, Dean of the Faculty of Art, Media and Design in Bristol has this to say about the white poppy. "There is, of course, a fundamental difference between a war monument that purports to encapsulate and define memory, and a peace monument that aims to extend a process, or to further a cause. Inevitably, the issue of political legitimacy is central to the issue of peace, as its pursuit has never served the state’s monopoly on violence. Being associated with internationalism, organisations such as the Peace Pledge Union, the white poppy movement and such like, represent a threat to the nation-state which regards an anti-war stance as anti-nation."

Of course, the white poppy isn't as internationally recognised as the red poppy. However it still features internationally. There has been controversy around its presence as well. It disappoints me that the white poppy has existed for over 70 years and many people are still worried about it.

Well-known New Zealand blogger David Farrar has accused the Peace Movement of Aotearoa of "[effectively] stealing money from the RSA". The thing is however, you're kind of playing with semantics when you wonder if money's being stolen or not. It's like being asked to give money for food or give money to research diseases. You can do both. Multiple charities can co-exist together and work together. This isn't a news paper advert asking for $500 so you can win at race horses. These donations fund scholarships given by a professional long-standing academic so people who have been affected by war can study it and learn how to help prevent it. You don't have to buy a red or white poppy. That's why it's called a donation. They are both valid and nobody's disrespecting anybody. It's been around for over 70 years. This isn't Cola vs Pepsi. They are both legitamite symbols. Everyone has there own interpretation of them and that's fine, this is a democracy after all.

There has also been associations with the white poppy and the white feather. The White feather has been known as the coward's symbol. However I think it's a symbol of courage and I'll explain why.



The White Feather

What is it?

In the Online Etymologhy dictionary, they describe the White Feather "as a symbol of cowardice, 1785, supposedly from game-cocks, "where having a white feather, is proof he is not of the true game breed" [Grose].

However, Margaret Orbell(as cited by Ana Pallesen, page 4) gives us another explanation in her book, Seabirds and people: the cultural importacne of seabirds, the illustrateed Encyclopedia of Maori Myth and Legend. The albatross(white) feathers were a spiritual symbol of peace to those affiliated with Taranaki iwi, “Let this be clearly understood by all Maoris, pakehas and all other nations. The white feather is a sign that all nations through the world will be one, black, red and all others who are called human beings. This feather will be the sign of unity, prosperity, peace and goodwill.” Te Whiti o Rongomai(Parihaka's founder) and Tohu Kakahi(Pariahaka's prophet) used the white feather as a symbol of Parihaka's non-violent resistance movement.

Where is it from?

The first explanation is from eugenics. It states if you have a white feather, you are not "true game breed" or of "good stock". This means you aren't built to fight and you aren't strong or desirable. Personally, war is not desirable. World Vision explains about war's causes to us: "Conflict is more likely to happen in poor countries, partly because people are more desperate for land, rights, water or even food. Of the 150 or more major conflicts since the Second World War, 130 of these have been in poor countries." The more we can reach solutions with peace the better. Peace is an ideal, but it's an ideal worth striving for and it can be a reality. It's an ideal the ANZACs and the people at Parihaka died for. It was a symbol of Parihaka's non-violent resistance movement and this is why I consider it a symbol of courage, as well as peace.



It will be 94 years since the ANZACs arrived at Gallipoli. While we remember our soldiers, it seems many countries have forgotten about peace.

I hope this post has given you some food for thought. Please enjoy your ANZAC day. People of Australia and New Zealand, remember the victims of war, remember our soldiers and remember what they fought for.