This is from the Wanganui Chronicle and updates us on where RDC is up to with their plans to solve the significantly long standing status of non-compliance with regard to the leachate pollution of the Tutaenui Stream. (To read the full history of this and the non compliance reports see former Martonian Hamish Allan’s submission to the consent hearings earlier this year. There should be an in stream biota survey every three years and it appears there have only been two). More on this later.
Recently a local resident who lives on the truck route informed me he sees 12 round trips per day of the leachate tanker. This is a significantly larger volume than the number that has been cited to the public.
An upgrade is good news will not be before its time.
Here is the Chronicle article:
“A multi-million-dollar, three-year upgrade of the Marton wastewater treatment plant has been proposed.
Rangitikei district councillors will this morning discuss changes aimed at making the plant compliant with its resource consent.
The MWTP has been non-compliant for at least a decade, partly due to its acceptance of leachate (run-off) from the nearby Bonny Glen landfill. The latest compliance report found the plant’s discharge into the Tutaenui Stream “significantly non-compliant”. At times, ammoniacal nitrogen levels have been 35 times the recommended limit and deemed to adversely affect aquatic life…”
This article from Stuff.co.nz illustrates that our elderly are staying in bed to keep warm and avoid turning on heaters, citing some bills of $500! The article here does explore possible reasons for escalating power bills and offers assistance and advice for those who are struggling. As a matter of interest however, smart meters are known to escalate power bills so if any of your loved ones are suffering in this way, you could be a little proactive on their behalf and check out if this is the reason. I know of a pensioner in a tiny one b/r flat who barely has her oil heater on, who is getting $300 power bills! (Mine is $200, same scenario, with heater on most days in winter … no smart meter, I got it removed when some power companies were removing them). Another person I know, their bill, AFTER the SM installation (nothing else changed re consumption, appliances or anything) … escalated from $400 to $1000, I kid you not. The Take Back Your Power website documents all this kind of info, and locally to NZ, the stopsmartmeters nz. website. Just saying as this is often the cause of higher bills although power companies deny it. If you get the chip removed from them (you may need to find a power company that will do it, shop around) the bills could go down or at least you’ll have eliminated that ticky box. I know that sometimes it is just high usage, but in some cases it is the meter.
I do feel for the elderly, this is not right they are cold in winter because of predatory power companies. Contact Energy in the year to June 30, produced a 17.6 per cent increase in net profit of $234 million. They appear to be doing fine, however we should be looking after our old people not ripping them off. These are the ones who did the hard yards in their younger years … so we should be looking after them in their older years. They built the society we have today that is quickly disappearing thanks to corporate sell outs. Vis a vis the current disappearance of our State Housing stock.
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
~ Mahatma Ghandi
To check if Smart Meters are the cause of high electricity costs, for further info on Smart Meters in NZ and for other links go to: https://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpress.com/smart-meters/ It’s recommended you watch Take Back Your Power, the award winning documentary by Josh del Sol. You can watch it at their website, or I have a copy available for loan to folks in the Rangitikei. Believe me, all you need to know about Smart Meters is in this documentary.
Be warned, although this is not NZ, we have these meters here already, and rolling out fast. Many are catching on here already and refusing their installation because of the known health effects. Educate yourself and be forearmed. They are NOT compulsory. You have every right to decline installation of a Smart (aka Advanced) Meter. More information can be found on the Smart Meter page here with links to further info. Particularly, it’s recommended you watch the award winning ‘Take Back Your Power’ documentary.
“The situation with smart meter fires is worse than we thought — and now we know why. This new investigative video tells all.
The whistleblowers (wishing to remain anonymous) who contacted us have serviced and repaired over 200,000 meters in the field. They have been warning their supervisors about ‘smart’ meter problems for nearly a decade now. They have had enough of the lies and want you to know what they know.
On top of the explosive new details, the meters have at least four major sources of arcing. That’s right — FOUR….”
Police officer Anton Kuraia is a cancer patient who is now thriving after treatment, seen here preparing for an 809 km walk, raising awareness and funds to help other cancer sufferers. 07 November 2014 Photograph by John Stone.
Helping New Zealanders fight Cancer Naturally
I’ve added a new page to the site this week on health (titled ‘Health and Wellness’). Featured there is New Zealand man, Anton Kuraia, a Northland Policeman with a young family who, after a course of chemotherapy, was sent home with only four weeks to live. Fortunately, he then heard about IV Vitamin C therapy, and decided to give it a go… amazingly, with success.
“…to show New Zealanders that there is always hope, even after a terminal cancer prognosis, and that there are options out there for you.”
His wonderfully encouraging story featured several times in the New Zealand media (links on the Success Stories page) … I found his website, contacted him and asked to feature his story here. If you explore his site you’ll find a page called ‘Bundle of Hope’ … where he and others have raised money to help others source the same treatment he received. Donations are welcomed.
The site also provides information on lifestyle, diet and environmental influences on health.
Here is a link to the envirowatch page which also has links to the media articles:
Here is a record of geoengineering activity over Marton in the Rangitikei region, New Zealand for January 2015. These trails have been visible most days in their various manifestations until more recently … there is now a more subtle method of delivery called chem bombs, documented on YT by mauiskywatch. More on that in a later post, however suffice to say we have much historical documentation of the trails from one end of NZ to the other. We also have documentation from right around our planet. They are everywhere.
Geoengineering is the practice of modifying our weather. For a timeline of how weather modification has been developed for decades visit http://climateviewer.com/geoengineering/ It is well documented. The slang term often used for these trails left by the aircraft is ‘chemtrails’ however, bear in mind this is the term used in the US Space Preservation Act 2001, HR2977, Sec 7, (2) (B) (ii), defining them as an ‘exotic weapons system’.
NZ’s former Minister for the Environment, Hon Amy Adams said this about geoengineering (in replying to my query):
Thank you for your email of 21 March 2014 to Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman regarding aircraft emissions. I am replying on his behalf to the second part of your email as the issue you raise falls within my portfolio as Minister for the Environment.
Geoengineering is a theoretical concept that would involve the manipulation of the earth’s environment to make the effect of climate change less severe. Aerosol engineering, the spraying of aerosol particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the earth, is a proposed geoengineering method.
The Government does not allow aerosol geoengineering and although it is the subject of some discussion in the scientific community, it is not an accepted method to address climate change. The best option is climate change mitigation – reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases – and the Government is working with other countries to develop an international agreement to achieve this.
I would like to assure you that there is no deliberate spraying of the nature you suggest and that the health and well-being of New Zealand citizens and our environment are a high priority for this Government.
Hon Nick Smith, current Min for the Environment, and also Amy-Adams’ predecessor, said in Parliament (amidst gales of laughter) that geoengineering was a hoax.
Here is a story of pollution at its worst. ANZAC, unexpectedly this year (2015) became the avenue of discovery and the event that prompted me to write this post. A note first to non-Kiwis/Aussies, ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps … every 25th of April, we commemorate our brave soldiers … our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, who both risked and sacrificed their lives in the two World Wars.
A young Freyberg at Oriental Bay in Wellington NZ
I hadn’t intended going to an ANZAC service and haven’t done since my father passed away in 2007. It brings back my deep sadness at losing him. An ad however, in the Horowhenua Chronicle, was brought to my attention by a family member about a special service to be held at Lake Horowhenua, Levin, honouring Lord General Freyberg for the centenary of the Gallipoli landing. My father had been his driver for four years during WWII, and Lake Horowhenua was one of the venues Freyberg had trained at in NZ as a young swimmer. His swimming would later earn him the VC (Victoria Cross) in WWI. The Horowhenua Chronicle read:
” Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg was a dentist in Levin before World War I; by the end of the war he was a decorated hero and recipient of the Victoria Cross. He earned the first of his four Distinguished Service Order medals for a swim he undertook on the morning of the invasion of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. In darkness, Freyberg had towed to shore a raft of flares to light as decoys before undertaking unarmed and alone a reconnaissance of the large army entrenched nearby.”
This ANZAC service was being organized by Phil Taueki (Muaupoko iwi) one of Lake Horowhenua’s owners and kaitiaki or guardian of the lake. The original commemorative plans would have seen swimmers crossing the lake however, those plans were dropped. You will see why shortly.
General Freyberg (centre) Corporal L. Keucke (left) and L. Sgt. J. Vernon (right)
We had no idea Freyberg had trained in Lake Horowhenua, or even that he had lived so close to our home town, only fifty or so minutes drive away. We decided to go to the service and take along with us the group photo my father treasured of the General, the General’s batman (also my father’s good friend) Laurie Keucke and himself, taken en route from Arrezzo, Rome, when they’d stopped for a ‘brew up’ and refreshments .
Lord General Freyberg
“… although it could be frightening being on the road and always vulnerable to attack, nevertheless the General was always without fear … ” L. Sgt. James Vernon (Driver)
My father remembered Freyberg as a fearless man who already had 18 wounds at that time. His driver from El Alamein to Monte Cassino to Rimini, he said that although it could be frightening being on the road and always vulnerable to attack, nevertheless the General was always without fear.
Freyberg apparently had a sense of humour too behind his fearsome exterior and knew the boys called him ‘Tiny’. Because his parents had emigrated from the UK to NZ when he was just a small child, he would undoubtedly have experienced the Kiwi culture and its characteristic sense of humour growing up. For example, when staff who didn’t like the fact that Kiwi soldiers didn’t always salute them, he’d suggested they try waving instead!
“… they wouldn’t get away with that in the British Army … ” (General Freyberg)
The New Zealand guys always gave him a bit of stick too my father said. Knowing of his swimming expertise, when Freyberg and his men were getting ready to cross the Sangro River during the Italian campaign, someone called out, “Hey Freyberg, you gonna swim across?”. This was met with a tight lipped, “they wouldn’t get away with that in the British Army”, and as always with this kind of comment, a gleam in his eye.
The kind of man the Freyberg was is evident too in his posing for the group photograph. Generals wouldn’t normally be photographed I’ve been told, with that level of staff . After WW II when Freyberg visited Dad’s home town Whanganui, he’d broken rank and hugged my father when he spotted him in the parade … exclaiming how he always remembered the wonderful breakfasts he’d cooked him in the desert. I always remember him as an excellent cook. After Freyberg’s appointment as Governor General of NZ after the war in 1946 my father and other of Freyberg’s staff I’ve heard, would call on him for a cup of tea at his home in Wellington, and every year, there would always be a Christmas card from Government House.
Lake Horowhenua
Lake Horowhenua, Levin, NZ
Returning to Lake Horowhenua, it turns out that the pristine lake the young dentist had trained in all those decades ago, had since been transformed from a valuable source of income and kai (food) for Muaupoko … into a literal toilet bowl. Raw sewage had been pumped into it for two decades starting in the 1950s, and although it ceased in the 1980s, the lake has continued to be polluted to this day by effluent from both surrounding dairy farming and from local agricultural activity. The price tag to clean up the pollution and realize the dream of having swimmers cross the lake on the day was estimated by Horizons to be $2.886 million.
This story is all too familiar. Here in the Rangitikei we have our own pollution scenario, where locals have complained that the extension to Bonny Glen landfill to now nearly quintuple its size, will turn our ‘unspoilt’ district into the toilet bowl rather than the ‘grain bowl’ of the lower North Island. ‘Unspoilt’ is the featured word on our official district logo. This is clearly not true.
“Two-thirds of more than 160 monitored river swimming spots in New Zealand have been deemed unsafe for a dip” NZ Herald 30/1/2015
Read Part 2 of this post with more on the events that transpired that ANZAC Day.
“The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact does not yet include an acceptable deal on access for New Zealand’s most important exports, dairy products, with little more than a month to go before the controversial 12- nation trade deal could be concluded.
“I think the way I would describe it is there’s a deal….”
“1/3 of the food currently produced worldwide is thrown away every year.. to help prevent this travesty, France just passed new legislation banning stores from purposefully ruining food … requiring all supermarkets 400 square feet or larger to donate unsold food to charity, for animal feed, or for farming compost.”
In recent weeks we’ve had some intriguing contrasts on this front. In NZ and the UK private organizations have been redistributing waste supermarket food to the needy, then in a town in Spain, we have a Mayor of 35 years seizing food from supermarkets to redistribute ‘Robin Hood’ style, to the poor. He sees speculation in food, and rightly so, as a disgrace. Food he says, is a right. This Mayor has also put the clamps on housing speculation and folks there in Marinaleda can own their own home for $19 a month… so long as it’s never sold for profit.
“We need to rethink our values, the consumer society, the value we place on money, selfishness and individualism,” says their mayor, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo.
Then in the US of America a young woman has been sacked for giving free cafeteria lunches to children who had no lunch money (see video at the link). Seventy one cities in the US have been trying to pass ordinances forbidding the donation of food to the homeless.
” … 90-year-old World War II veteran Arnold Abbott made national headlines when he got busted by cops in Fort Lauderdale, Florida twice in one week—for giving out food to homeless people. While serving a public meal on November 2, Abbott told the Sun-Sentinel, “a policeman pulled my arm and said, ‘Drop that plate right now,’ like it was a gun.”
What’s the planet coming to? Generosity being criminalized … for what? Much of the food being denied the poor is only headed for landfills anyway. Hopefully other nations will follow the lead on this and practice some civil disobedience to get the message across. It’s not as if the poor will be shopping elsewhere and affecting profits. And profits are the underlying agenda in all of this. Take an hour out and watch ‘The Corporation’ documentary. You will learn from that that profits are the bottom line for corporations. They are not about helping people and the insanity of many of them needs to be challenged. Preventing people from feeding the poor simply isn’t right.
Most people who subscribe to truth sites similar to this one will be aware that water is becoming the new ‘gold’. This was ‘prophesied’ in a sense by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke in their book called ‘Blue Gold the Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water’ (2001), a very interesting and informative read. (The documentary of the same name is on Bitchute.)
Here in NZ recent news items have questioned ‘who owns our water?’ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/debate-who-owns-the-water/VIVM3S5TCFZ3R5M75H67ORJ3NA/
‘Nobody’, says the current PM John Key … and yet a Hawkes Bay bottling plant (Chinese owned) has been sold pretty cheap rights to bottle and export 900 million liters per year. While locals who wish to water their orchards are required to pay for it. Read the explanations for this and to the average citizen they sound like gobbledy gook … citing the Resource Management Act (RMA) and spun in legal rhetoric most of us can’t understand. This is the way of big business.
NZ’s Maori King, King Tuheitia says Maori “have always owned the water.” In August 2012, the Waitangi Tribunal found that Māori still have residual proprietary rights in water and the Crown would breach the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi if it went ahead with the sale of State owned power company share sales. Maori customary title, according to the 2003 “Ngati Apa” decision of the Court of Appeal, must be lawfully extinguished before it can be regarded as ceasing to exist. Customary rights, although not ownership in a Lockean sense, says the NZ Herald, still represent more than the relegation of Maori to being non-owners of non-ownable water. Indeed, when acquiring the land for the Crown, the Queen solemnly agreed for Maori to retain “full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess…”
Still it appears perfectly legal in the case of Hawke’s Bay, for the local council there to sell an offshore corporation the rights to extract large quantities, even though, as John Key argues, nobody owns it.
For the purposes of introduction here, water and one’s right to it is becoming somewhat complicated. There are places on the planet where the powers that be have integrated into law the prohibition of collecting it for personal consumption. As insane as this may sound it is factually true. As always, follow the money trail.
Corporations are seeking to privatise our water commons for a profit (and yes it was always considered one’s right to water is sacrosanct). Exemplifying their typical avarice for more and more profits, they seek to gobble up all the water resources and rights to them it seems, and sell them back to us at exorbitant prices.
This is the way of corporations. They are seldom for the people and always for their shareholders. Separate entities with legal personhood they manage to do just about anything their shareholders wish for them to do whilst escaping accountability for any damage they incur.
A few years back in Cochabamba Bolivia, a large corporation had privatised the water and was charging around half the income of the poor to buy it off them. So oppressive did this become it ended up with riots and even loss of life to oust the corporation and return to the previous status quo. If there is anything you should learn on this site it is that corporations are not generally kindly companies that wish to help people. (Please watch ‘The Corporation’ movie). Any intimation from them that they wish you well is generally just rhetoric to appease you or persuade you you to buy. This attack on the rights of people to drink the essence of life, (and it is well established that water is essential to life itself) is a huge attack on our ultimate freedoms. Fifty years ago this line of thinking would be unheard of … unthinkable. As I’ve pointed out often here, fifty years ago most households had their own water tanks to collect rainwater. That was standard practice. And yet, today it is being put to us as being right and proper that we should not be collecting it at all. We have been seriously duped by little increments that corporations can, but not we the people. Lest I be misunderstood here, I am not against water conservation. I simply believe, like most ordinary folks, that water should not be virtually given to corporations to profiteer with, at the expense of locals who need it for day to day survival.
Welcome then to the water wars. And I’ve not even touched on water pollution and our health. In the meantime, be sure to stand up for water rights wherever they are being quietly, or not so quietly, whittled away. Next we will be charged for the air we breathe. Such is life in the twenty first century. If the water wars are new to you begin by watching the documentary Blue Gold.
Test results have revealed that herbicide-tolerant swedes planted as stock feed have unnaturally high levels of toxins that cause liver damage in livestock.
The test results have raised questions as to why farmers have been allowed to plant the crop again this season.
Documents obtained by Radio New Zealand show the Southland Swedes Working Group was told in October there was a problem with the herbicide-tolerant swedes….”
I read today a headline bewailing the weather and Mother Nature who has taken a swipe & ruined holiday plans. It’s little known that our weather is actually man made and has been for some years now. Take a peek at climateviewer.com for a well documented timeline of that activity and what’s been happening with it. The evidence is all there if you care to research it. Check out the info below this video, filmed in the Rangitikei twelve months ago. There are many docos now … for links to these and other research visit the Geoengineering page on the site.
This article is from the local newspaper, the Rangitikei Mail, courtesy of neighbourly.co.nz
Community gardens are indeed catching on. If you missed it a couple of days ago I featured the Todmorden (UK) ‘experiment’ that revolutionized the town. (Pam Warhurst, How we Can Eat our Landscapes). It’s so inspiring and so worth the watch … & at the Garden page there are articles on the topic if you haven’t time to watch the TED video there (13 mins approx).
Anyway, back to this post which is an article on community gardens in NZ and how they are catching on for people wanting to grow their own food but lacking the space to do it.
From Sustainable Pulse: “Research lead by a team from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand has found that commonly used herbicides, including the world’s most used herbicide Roundup, can cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics….”
An update here on the ongoing Glyphosate research this time from our own laboratories here in NZ … it gets more disturbing by the day. Each piece of research that is damning of the product should be leading all countries to ban it. Posts soon to follow regarding our own district and submissions to Council to restrict its use in public places….
“Mangawhai ratepayers and residents face massive rates rates increases, initially proposed at +1800% to raise money for a “sewerage scheme” it turns out that something much more sinister and far smellier is in the works.
No democracy, no accountability, no rights and no access to justice, worst case scenario right? Well how about the disputed rates payments that are before the high court being stolen directly from citizens bank accounts?
So much stolen that you can’t even make your next mortgage payement?
This might be one of the most important cases in recent New Zealand local government and yet the media are completely ignoring it and leaving those in this community to fight for themselves.
Luckily, people like Alan Preston and chairman of The Mangawhai Residents And Ratepayers Association Bruce Rogan are there to give light to this very important issue!”
Info from video information section
Please share the video.
And explore Agenda 21 in relation to this. The Agenda 21 page is here., and Agenda 21 in NZ here. Read Dr Naomi Jacobs’ ebook on this matter (on the NZ page) & why rates are rising everywhere.
Consider liking our FB page &/or following our blog (right of any page) to help spread the word on all the untruths we have been told! Use the share buttons!
From Radio Live NZ … Winston Peters is warning about the repercussions in store if John Key signs NZ on to the TPPA.
“The big corporations are so close to governments, not only in New Zealand, that they have handed over many details of the Trans Pacific Partnership while the public in the negotiating countries are kept in the dark. These corporations are about to get unbelievable powers over New Zealand if the PM keeps his favourite hat on.
The treaty will be signed by the National government, not by Parliament.” Read Article at SOURCE
Check out what the TPPA entails & why you should be involved in opposing it (ideas about how, HERE). Raise awareness in your community, attend the day of protest coming up on March 7th (details & links on the TPPA page here).
Somebody I know locally, as we discussed food and what’s in it these days, handed me an additive list she takes shopping with her so she knows which items to avoid. The list comes from an excellent website I’d not seen before … and one which is closer to home for Kiwis. The site is www.additivealert.com.au
Described there are, of 300 additives in our food, 60 that are particularly questionable, and some pose definite health risks. Some of them are known carcinogens. They advertise a book there called ‘Additive Alert’ by Julie Eady.
“This book is the essential consumers guide to selecting
food that is as risk free as current knowledge will permit. Presenting a well thought out and logical flow of information, it is easy to read and understand. “Additive Alert” makes real healthy food choices simpler for us all. An absolute must for the health conscious.”
Dr Joanne Samer MB.BS, Post Grad Dip Health Science, Perth WA
Like the EWG site, you can search these & identify the side effects of additives. One for instance is number 102, called Tartrazine, and is linked to hyperactivity, skin rashes, migraines, behavioural problems, thyroid problems and chromosome damage. It has been banned in Norway and Austria.
Check out the website and add it to your favourites if you find it useful. In addition, if you find additives in your favourite products, vote with your wallet, obviously, and don’t buy, but also, consider phoning the makers of these products and ask that they desist from using the additive/s. If they won’t, tell them you won’t buy them. Consider, if every consumer did this, things would change fairly quickly: Visit Additive Alert
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