The Rocks

TAFE top

Sponsored by the TAFE Sustainability Officer this series was designed to engage students in thinking about sustainability and what that might mean to them personally and how their personal actions supported sustainability or otherwise.

The events are planned to run each Wednesday over the lunch break for at least eight weeks. Here you can read some of the issues the students brought up.

Aug 20th Aug 27th Sept 3rd Sept 10th

Wednesday 20th August

This first group was small with only a handful of participants. We were no less impressed with the inputs and the issues raised. Some of these issues included:

Our propensity for accumulating things
Resources and their use (Forests and such)
Stability in community. Self and children
Population. Declining population or over population?
Lifestyle Sustainable?
Pollution
Water
Littering
Constructive policies (For all) and the need to know what these are up front. Especially for new citizens.
Isolation from community. Are we becoming self centred?
Self Esteem for young people. They need to know they are needed and valuable.
Students too busy thinking about class to think about bigger issues.
Spirits. Need to acknowledge that we are spiritual beings.

All in all a very impressive set of issues to be addressed and it is hoped we can get to penetrate these further as the series progresses.

Wednesday August 27th Back to top

A slightly bigger group this week so maybe the acorns are growing. Another set of issues were addressed thoughtfully.

What gets in the way of a sustainable life is Politics and big business. Sustainable policies seem to be against economic growth which is really all we measure our success on. Political correctness can also limit our conversation on these issues.

Students are too lazy to think about these things. We can talk about it but so what and who cares. Sense of overwhelm and there doesn't appear to be any invitation or reward for concerning ourselves about such issues as Sustainability. It's the Governments who should be taking care of such things.

How do we get more students to come in to the Conversations? Offer food. Pizza.

Seen as imperative that we get young people involved. They need to be given new skills and tools.

Life is much too busy for us to be taking responsibility for this and technology has opened us up to even more of this busyness.

Importance of art as an access to sustainability matters.

Biggest inhibitor is the blinkered thinking that comes out of educating us to be economy fodder.

Altogether outsourcing of citizenship and other facets of our lives. All energy given to fulfilling the economic dream to make us happy. EG. Instant food. No time for REAL food and real nurturing

Growth from changing focus from our problems to what shines and sparkles.

New word for us westerners. Bo wo dai chi yin. ????

Need to have each house self sufficient in water, waste and power. (Mobb's house in Chippendale)

Turn facilities off at the switch. (Radios, computers, stoves etc.)

Note that any saving we make seems to be only taken up by growth.. We MUST limit growth.

Wednesday September 3rd Back to top

Today we used bait in the form of that wonderful invention called Pizza. It did indeed engage more participants so we had a healthy and robust session.

It would be interesting to be able to report the full proceedings of these conversations but we must be limited here to suggesting the mood of the day and highlight some of the topics that engaged our thoughts. Some of them are offered below but note that these are the opinions of the participants only and not necessarily presented as facts.

Governments only look forward to the next election and sustainability issues need long range planning. All planning is short term.
It seems that many young people believed the world is stuffed anyway. "We are probably going to be the last or next to last generation to survive."
It is highly probable we will kill ourselves off with pollution both in the air and in our food
Governments talk but they don't "stay on their words." Evidence offered with a range of views on Afghanistan, Iraq, Tampa affair, Trade Agreements.
Plenty of evidence to confirm the view that the government policies are all about supporting big business and their economic affairs rather than the quality of life of citizens. The two are inevitably mutually exclusive regardless of government "mouth"
Business studies in this institution and the University next door are about consumerism and continuing the throw away society
Cheque book journalism is cynical. Press is controlled by big business advertisers and in no way does it represent the interests of the readers.
There is a finance report attached to the daily news such as the Nasdaq and the Gold price. Economics is king. What about and environment report or a social capital report?
Our whole economic system and society is geared towards cutting corners and saving time. That leads to nil regard for the environment
Noted that many cultures and languages are becoming extinct. Reducing or limiting diversity in culture makes marketing easier.
Shopping Malls are bringing about the demise of communities. People feel isolated and separated from each other. No accidental meetings.
Much fear in the community because we don't know each other. No more playing in the street. We're conditioned to put on a protective shell
Better if we included some lessons in responsibility and consequences in some Rights of Passage. At present there are none.
Note that we're better at complaining and fault-finding than actually taking action
What would serve us is to find some building blocks for hope. Such as developing our myths and stories as a source of teaching and hope.
Then if we learn to live being conscious and aware of our actions we stand a chance
Remember to celebrate what we have got

Altogether a rather thoughtful and inspiring Conversation. Most agreed that this process itself offers a source of hope and will be a great way to spread the word and encourage a cultural change.

Wednesday September 3rd Back to top

Ahh.. Blessed Pizza. What a great invention and a suitable addition to the Conversation table.

Slightly bigger group which is promising and some pretty thoughtful insights to this business of Sustainability. It's quite clear that it is a difficult concept to get our minds around as it is so big. Perhaps we'll be better able to be more focused when we narrow the topic down to issues that we can deal with at a personal level.

One of our number works with weapons and weapons definitely designed to do damage to life and property. "Something I think about sometimes but mostly I consider it just a job and what could I do about it anyway?"

We had some discussion on that and perceived a notion that there's little I can do. Either because of laziness or the belief that nothing I do can do any good. We're overwhelmed.

There was some frustration for those amongst us who were more positive and intent on making a difference when faced with such responses.

Observed that bureaucracies say "No" too easily. Also as soon as one little thing goes wrong or there is some stupid action on somebody's part then authority shuts down any innovation.

Noted also the strong need for education re recycling as well as a need for conversation about such issues as the over dependency on cars.

There seems to be a continuous striving to advance or develop. We use resources and technology but not just enough. We are impelled to over use. (If a little bit is good then a lot will be terrific.) So we're always aiming at growth.

Supplying food never stopped starvation. The more we feed ourselves, the more we expand and increase the demand for food. Thus starvation will always be on us whileever we try to stem it by supplying more food.

We were again getting into the "Ain't it awful" and gloom but suggested that there is no point in fooling ourselves. The direction and rate of development is indeed gloomy.

One person expressed his view the we "Need to have faith in our government and that there is something to hope for." Some discussion took place around that.

Hmm.. Next week we're going to have a look at what sort of footprint we make on the planet at a personal level