News From the Hill

Archive for October, 2009

I don’t quite know what it is about dark Autumn and winter evenings that inspires me to knit or crochet.

It happens each year without fail. Despite this my knitting skills have not really improved very much.

I tend to knit simple things like scarves that require no pattern and I don’t have to worry about tension – other than my tension if I drop a stitch!

This winter I am trying a baby blanket for the impending birth of my second grand-child. I am using cotton yarn so that itching the wee baby’s delicate skin won’t be a problem.

I found a great free website for baby blanket patterns. In fact there are lots of wonderful free knitting patterns out there on the internet, just google free knitting pattern followed by your chosen project – for example free knitting pattern baby blanket.

I decided to see if I could improve my knitting technique so I went to the vast storage library of all skills – YouTube.

I found an amazing video of what looked like a very simple and fast technique for knitting.

I have tried this continental knitting method for a whole evening and although I am able to do it I find that I am still very slow and that I feel stressed so I have gone back to my own method for the moment.

There is at least one knitting group in the Leitrim/Roscommon area that meets in Carrick On Shannon every few weeks. I will try to go along to the next meeting.

Meanwhile, I will keep on knitting, one stitch at time…

Today is Blog Action Day and this year -  yip, apparently it’s a yearly event where bloggers are asked to all write about a particular social issue in order to help raise awareness, I must have missed it last year – I digress, this year it’s to highlight climate change and encourage people to increase their awareness and increase action for change.

I wondered what deep and meaningful essay I could write and decided instead to do a simple list of things that are easy to do – and therefore more likely to happen and may even save you money.

Starting with the obvious energy savers:

* Unplug your power cubes! You know the little boxes that are used to charge phones, laptops, torches, rechargeable this, that and the other…

It is not enough to unplug your device from the end of the cable, you need to unplug the charger or switch it off at the wall socket. The cube does continue to use power all the time that it is connected to the wall socket even though it is not actually charging anything.

* Change your light bulbs for energy saving bulbs. I know that they cost more although they are a lot cheaper now than some years ago. If you are on a tight budget like me then you might like to change over each bulb as the old one blows and needs replacing anyway.

The energy saving bulbs use about 80% less energy and also last a lot longer. However you still cannot use these bulbs with dimmer switches so perhaps just switch to a lower wattage incandescent bulb for your dimmer appliances.  Some shops are selling energy savers which claim to be suitable for dimmers – I have been advised that they still keep blowing so don’t waste your money on them, wait for another year or so and they may have improved.

* Do switch off your tv, computers and anything else that “sleeps” or goes into stand-by mode. Unless you absolutely need to have the clock on your microwave or oven tell you the time then switch these appliances off at the wall too when not in use. I don’t know many people who actually use their oven timers anyway. Appliances on stand-by do continue to use power all the time that they are plugged in even when they are doing nothing.

* Clean your fridge regularly and keep your freezer clear of ice (other than cubes obviously) and as full as you can, it will be more efficient that way.

* Barter, swap or buy a multi-pot steamer and a pressure cooker,  save energy while you are cooking.

* Eat fresh food in season and buy local. You help local producers,  reduce food miles and get fresher food. Remember that some EU states such as Holland irradiate all of the fresh veg that they export!

* Support Irish dairy products instead of imported, buy organic if you can. If you can’t afford organic it is good to know that Irish non-organic yoghurt is still most likely healthier than European produced organic yoghurt.

Its not just about price or about buying local when it comes to dairy products. For me it’s because I have seen a map of Europe with all the active incinerators marked on the map, in fact I helped to create the map and it scared the cr*p out of me.

Incinerators produce dioxins which are belched out with the smoke, yes, even with chimney scrubbers, they spread for about 20kms, dioxins end up on the land, the cattle eat the grass and silage, the dioxins intensify as they move up the food chain stored in fatty tissue and milk – you get the picture.

* Ask your local shops what their stance is on selling products containing GM food stuffs. Write to their head offices too if you can. Consumer pressure does work, it may take some time to see the effects, don’t give up!

* If you have the space and the time why not grow some food? You can grow strawberries in hanging baskets by your window or door in you live in a flat or apartment without a garden.

* Gardening without a garden? Join your local community garden. If there isn’t one get some people together and start a project, see what’s involved in setting one up yourselves, lots of helpful websites out there – just google community gardens and start reading, digging, growing, eating – yummy!

* Feeling adventurous? Why not learn to build your own wind turbine? It’s really not as hard as it sounds, is good fun, you learn lots of skills and when you build one for yourself you will get an enormous amount of satisfaction as you watch it spin and generate power for you. You definitely need a garden for this project though

* Sign up with social justice websites like Avaaz You can do a lot of good by simply adding you name to petitions as they come into your email inbox, I think of it as armchair campaigning!

* Check out Skill Swap.  A site where you can barter your skills and receive the benefits of other people’s skills.

* Check out Hopenhagen - it’s all about changing the Climate Change World Conference in Copenhagen into an event of Hope – it will make more sense when you read the site and please sign up

* Another site for global change is Oxfam - in their own words “As more and more people join the campaign, our voice will become louder and stronger and impossible to ignore. It is time for real action on climate change.”

* Here’s another one – a site you can sign up to and by doing so help to change things – Time for Climate Justice

I just love armchair campaigning   If you have more ideas to share please let us know in the comments.

Making a change with a flick of a mouse or keyboard…

Go forth and promote change… Don’t forget to smell the flowers along the way…

Today I read a blog that is on my goggle reader list, written by a woman, Sharman Apt Russell, who writes beautifully about feeling connection with place.  Her blog is here.

This particular entry is called “Love of Home” and it was the last paragraph that gave me pause for thought – It buoys me with proof that one person with one shovel can change everything, given a guiding vision of a more abundant life, a life more intimate with the gifts of its place.

I would encourage you to go read the post in it’s entirety so as to have the excerpt in context. It has me think more about last nights post and whether to become more actively involved in politics, not actually running for election or anything heady like that, simply whether or not to join a particular political party in order to help change it’s focus.

I like that one person with one shovel can bring about great change, it’s more in line with my current thinking, to just do what you do and let that be enough.

Knowing that it is enough is key.

Knowing that it is enough to just do your best doing what you do and let that be.

Letting it go and not try to influence or change anyone else, just do your own thing and trust that it will work out…

Easier said than done…

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? . . . And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

This post has been prompted by a comment on the previous post. Thanks Sean for getting me to put my thoughts down in words.

Yes, I agree that the situation with the Green party is sad. A lot of people have given of themselves over the years to create a party which was to have the care and responsibility for a healthy earth as it’s prime motivator.

I have never been a party member however I know many who are or have been very actively involved in the party and I know that many of them are really feeling the disappointment now.

Some of them feel that the compromise that is happening at government level is worth it, others don’t agree.

I am now considering joining the party and encouraging all the alternative minded people that I know to do the same in an effort to reclaim the party from Dublin intellectuals and career politicians.

I do like the fact that party members actually do have a say in what happens. If I do become a party member and if I am unhappy with what is happening then I would have the chance to try and shape new policy. It does require some serious consideration.

I have never been a party person, never had unwavering allegiance to one party, preferring instead to choose individual candidates in my local area. I used to be quite involved in local politics at one time because of the campaigns that I was involved and I saw the local politicians in light that most of the electorate do not.

Most Irish people have never attended a local council meeting in their own area. It is an interesting thing to do because you see the politicians behave in a way which you don’t see when you watch them through the public lens. It is particularly interesting when a really important decision is to be made as sometimes national politicians turn up to oversee from the public gallery and ensure that the locals do as they have been instructed.

I have distanced myself from involvement in politics and campaigning as a thoughtful action, not passively or because of apathy. It does take a certain level of energy to maintain an active and thoughtful interest in both active campaigning and politics and I decided some years ago that enough was enough.

I became tired of trying to change things from the top down and instead I have concentrated on working from the ground up. I now prefer to quietly just get on with my own business, trying my best to live as sustainably as possible. I have always loved the quote – And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

I guess that is what I have been doing for the last few years. Change that comes from the ground up is very rooted. It is well tried and tested by the time that change becomes the norm.  It may seem as though nothing is changing then slowly you may start to notice a change in attitude or habits of people a long way from your sphere of influence – so to speak.

I have some thinking to do on this, whether or not to become more actively involved again.

All input is gratefully received, please comment if you feel moved…

TARAWATCH PRESS RELEASE

09 October 2009

‘Protests Planned for Green Convention at RDS Tomorrow’

TaraWatch is calling for demonstrations at the Green party Special Convention at the RDS tomorrow, to protest against the lack of protections for the environment in the proposed Programme for Government.

Education and electoral reform are not core Green issues. The core idea behind the Green Party is supposed to be protecting the natural and built heritage, from industry and inappropriate development. Anti-corruption is an integrated part of that, because it is what leads to economic and environmental damage, by by-passing the legal checks and balances.

At this very moment, Minister John Gormley is actively defending Ireland’s behaviour in relation to the M3, in the European Court of Justice, against the European Commission, and arguing that the decision by Dick Roche to demolish Lismullin is NOT subject to the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (EIA) and that Roche did NOT have to perform one when he made the decision.

Gormley is also arguing to the European Commission that the National Development Plan (NDP) is NOT subject to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive, and that the NDP is not actually a development plan at all, but rather simply a ‘financial plan’, and therefore there does not have to be cost-benefit analysis or independent assessment done on the NDP.

Gormley is NOT arguing that Ireland must ratify that UN Convention Against Corruption, which Michael McDowell had promised he would.

Gormley has NOT introduced the new National Monuments Act, which he promised he would deliver in 2008, and will not do so until 2010.

Gormley has NOT fully ratified the AARHUS Convention, for public participation in public decision-making, making Ireland the only country in Europe not to have done so.

Gormley has NOT reversed of the guillotining Freedom of Information Act, which would aid the public in preventing further economic and environmental damage.

Gormley has delayed the UNESCO nomination of Tara and a couple of dozen other of Ireland’s most important heritage sites for 2 years, even though Ireland is well past the ten year time limit of revising the UNESCO list, under the UNESCO Convention. The last revision was in 1992.

Vincent Salafia, a lecturer in Sustainable Management at Queens University Belfast, said:

“The Green Party is quietly facilitating the economic and physical ruin of this country, and TaraWatch is calling on all concerned citizens to join them in demonstrating at the RDS tomorrow.

“The Green Party is a fraud, as it has abandoned its core environmental concern, which is what got them elected in the first place.

“The Green Party is actually demanding things that Fianna Fail want to do anyway, because they know it is needed, but want to able to say they were forced by the Greens to do it, in order to keep their cronies happy. The Greens are arguing for issues that they know are vote-getters, period.”

“Paying above market value for property under NAMA is “criminal”, and “robbing the taxpayer”, according to the economist Stiglitz. It is the most corrupt piece of legislation ever conceived of in Ireland.

ENDS

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