WE DID IT!
I'm doing a Snoopy Happy Dance here at home, after the government today announced they were backing down on their plans to mine our National Parks.
Looks like I'm not going to have to chain myself to the bulldozers after all. Well, not right this minute, anyway.
Thank God there's someone in the National Party who's able to see that they got it really, really wrong - and that it would be political suicide to continue with their plans in the face of such enormous opposition.
Mind you, that person is most definitely not Gerry Brownlee - spinning the announcement madly this evening by saying that this is nothing less than a mandate from the people to go ahead and mine the shit out of the rest of the country instead. Just go ahead and try it, Gerry - and I think in many places you'll find the opposition is just as strong as it was for the Schedule 4 areas.
I emailed Gerry Brownlee, John Key and Kate Wilkinson when this whole thing blew up. This is what I said:I am outraged. How dare you???
Our National Parks and conservation areas are our taonga. They are what makes us special, and unique, and what many of the tourists who spend $9billion a year here come to see. Not for nothing do our many visitors call New Zealand "the most beautiful place in the world".
And you want to dig them up and destroy parts of our precious heritage for ever - in the name of profit - most of which will go to the mining companies? Based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation from a mining industry consultant - and without seeking any advice on the impact of mining on our tourism industry? Unbelievable.
You selfish, small-minded, greedy bastards. Yes I'm angry - I'm downright furious. I'm currently listening to Ms Wilkinson ranting on in parliament. My God. If she's the Minister for Conservation, then God help the environment.
"Surgical mining"? Is that like 'scientific whaling' by any chance? Don't lie to us - some people may be fooled, but the majority are not - and for many of us, me included - this is our line in the sand.
I'm sending you this message from the Forest & Bird website. I joined the organisation yesterday - I've never been a member before - specifically because you are trying to prevent DoC staff from discussing mining with F&B. How pathetic. What are you afraid of? They've revealed nothing that isn't true.
In the space of just a few months you have turned me back into a political activist - after 20 years of relative political inactivity. Good for you. I suspect I am not the only one. I also suspect that the passion you have unleashed in those of us who care about our environmental heritage will be far stronger than the vague feelings of greed you have stirred up in those poor deluded fools who actually believe your lies and spin.
National and ACT - the parties that know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Prepare for a fight, because that's what you're gonna get. We're not going to let you do this.
Back when I wrote that email I didn't know just how much opposition there would actually be. I was hopeful - I knew yer average Kiwi was proud of our beautiful National Parks, and I knew there would be many people who were, like me, outraged at the prospect of parts of them being destroyed for 30 pieces of silver - but I wasn't 100% sure that there'd be enough of an outcry to make them stop.
I knew we had to hit them hard and hit them fast - it's much easier to stop plans like these at an early stage than it is to try and stop them when you've reached the chaining-yourself-to-the-bulldozers stage.
I will be forever grateful to the Green Party, Forest & Bird, Greenpeace and all the other groups who joined forces under the banner of 2precious2mine - and who all utilised the power of the internet, social networking, online organising and online submission-making to get 47,000 signatures on the Greens' anti-mining petition, 40,000 people demonstrating against the proposals in Auckland in May, and 37,552 New Zealanders making submissions, the vast majority of which opposed the government's plans. Now that's people power in action.
I was banking on something I mentioned in my email - I suspected that the passion felt by those who opposed the mining would be much stronger than any vague feelings of greed in those who either didn't care about our environmental heritage, or who believed the government's spin that mining was the only possible solution to our economic woes.
From that perspective, I felt that even if we were in the minority, we'd work until we dropped to make sure the mining didn't happen - and that we'd be able to win through sheer force of will, even if we didn't quite have the numbers.
Turns out I underestimated my fellow Kiwis just a bit - and that a majority were opposed to mining anyway, which is awesome - and that a HUGE number of people felt passionately enough about it to get off their asses and make themselves heard - which is extremely awesome.
I think in retrospect, the tipping point was probably the sheer number of National supporters who were also horrified by their party's plans. (Well, that and John Key's desperate need to retain his Mr Popular image). I don't think Brownlee et al saw that coming at all - although, honestly, if they couldn't see the NIMBY vote coming out in full force in Auckland to protect their beautiful playgrounds in the Coromandel and Great Barrier Island, then they're more stupid than I thought.
I was struck by a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is generally "All National, All The Time". We rarely talk politics these days 'cos we never agree and we'd rather stay friends than fight - so I was completely amazed to be discussing the mining proposals with her and to be hearing her say how outraged she was, and how untrustworthy she feels her party has become, and how she doesn't believe much of anything they say any more - and how if there was an election tomorrow she might not be able to bring herself to vote for them!
Holy hell! For me, that was huge. I have no doubt that National's pollsters were well aware of the backlash from their party faithful, and I'm betting that that had a major influence on their decision to do a 180. It's one thing to stir up anger and protest in a bunch of lefties and greenies who are never going to vote for you anyway - and quite another to offend your own party members to such an extent that they begin contemplating not voting for you any more...
I see two dark clouds on the horizon of this otherwise sunny day of celebration.
The first is that the government is changing the rules so that the Energy and Resources Minister will now be included in decisions regarding access to conservation land. Currently those decisions are made by the Minister for Conservation alone.
The fact that the guy trying to promote mining now gets to influence decisions made by the woman who (in theory at least) is supposed to be standing up for the rights of the environment is a big concern, and one which has not escaped the notice of environmental groups, including ECO (Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand):The Government decision not to take areas from Schedule Four is welcome, but the Government decision to give the Minister of Energy and Resources effective control over mining access to conservation land was a major step backwards, the Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO) said today.
ECO co-chair Cath Wallace said the decision on schedule 4 protected land is a victory for all those who made submissions, marched and signed petitions against the proposal to open up further conservation land to mining. “The government deserves credit for listening to them.”
“The Government should now listen to those submitters and not include the Minister of Economic Development (Gerry Brownlee) in making decisions on other conservation land.”
Ms Wallace said the process showed that neither Gerry Brownlee nor his Ministry understood the real values of conservation areas and the attachment New Zealanders have to it.
The second dark cloud is the direction in which Gerry is already spinning this:"From my perspective this has been a valuable exercise. I suspect few New Zealanders knew the country had such considerable mineral potential before we undertook this process, and I get a sense that New Zealanders are now much more aware of that potential and how it might contribute to economic growth.
"Essentially the discussion process identified where the minerals industry can and can't go. As many people have pointed out, around 85 per cent of the country is not protected by Schedule 4, and a great deal of that land has mineral potential.
"New Zealanders have given the minerals sector a clear mandate to go and explore that land, and where appropriate, within the constraints of the resource consent process, utilise its mineral resources for everyone's benefit," Mr Brownlee said.
The government has also decided to undertake a significant aeromagnetic survey of non Schedule 4 land in Northland and on the West Coast of the South Island to learn more about which areas have the highest concentrations of valuable minerals.
"I am delighted to announce that the aeromagnetic survey in Northland will be conducted as a partnership between central government and the various agencies of local government in Northland.
"It is our expectation that when that data becomes available there will be an escalation of mineral exploration and extraction in those areas, which will be of benefit to the economies of both regions."
Only a politician could spin an outcry against one thing into a "clear mandate" in favour of something quite similar but not exactly the same.
It was completely obvious to anyone with half a brain that the government never had any intention of mining in the Coromandel or Great Barrier Island - they'd have lost Auckland and therefore the election if they'd pursued that goal - but at the time I figured that these were just a smokescreen.
I figured they'd back down with great fanfare on one or both areas, "Hey look! Aren't we democratic? We listened to the people!" and then go quietly away and mine somewhere else instead while people weren't looking.
Which is essentially what they are planning to do, if Gerry's spin is anything to go by. I thought they'd go away and mine another bit of Schedule 4 land (Paparoa or Stewart Island) so I'm massively pleased that they've also backed away from those plans - but I'm VERY concerned about the "85 per cent of the country [that] is not protected by Schedule 4" which Gerry already has his beady little eyes on.
Northland and the West Coast are definitely at risk now - and I see it as cynical in the extreme to target areas of the country where the population is under-employed and economically vulnerable - and therefore less likely to examine the true economic cost of allowing mining to go ahead in their backyards.
We won the battle today - but we didn't win the war. I don't think we'll ever win the war, to be honest, because there will always be greedy bastards out there anxious to rape and pillage our precious lands, and there will always be greedy shareholders looking to increase their dividends at whatever cost - but we have to keep on fighting - for ever - to protect what's important to us.
To me, that's always been the underlying truth of environmental activism. We fight because it's the right thing to do, not because we know we will always win. We won today, but we return to battle tomorrow.
Useful links
Technorati tags: mining, mining National Parks, Schedule 4, Gerry Brownlee, backdown, Kate Wilkinson, conservation, environment, 100% pure NZ, greenies, Greenpeace, Green Party, Forest & Bird, 2precious2mine, protest, environmental activism, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Government backs down on mining our National Parks
Monday, July 12, 2010
Glee flash mobs
I've had a bunch of episodes of Glee piling up on the MySky for ages, and this weekend I've finally gotten around to watching them. I'm almost caught up again. Yay!
I don't know how they do it, but I reckon Glee is pretty much the only show where I can be guaranteed to laugh out loud and shed a tear or two in every single episode. It is, simply, delightful.
And then I found Glee flash mobs on YouTube. Such fun!
Official Seattle Glee Flash Mob Video - Seattle, Westlake:
Glee Flash Mob - Grafton Street - Dublin, Ireland:
Flash Mob at the Ohio Union 5/3/2010 - The Ohio State University:
GLEE - Il FlashMob in Rome:
glee flash mob Tel Aviv:
All School Assembly Flash Mob (not all Glee, strictly speaking, but I love this cos it's the teachers flashmobbing the students):
Technorati tags: Glee, flash mobs, Seattle, Dublin, Ohio State University, Rome, Tel Aviv, All School Assembly, music, musicals, TV shows, YouTube, video, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Matt Smith & Orbital - Dr Who theme, Glastonbury 2010
I'm such a slacker.
I haven't written in my blog for a month - being self-employed really does reduce my life down to a single purpose if I let it. Must.do.better.
Anyway, having been to a total of nine Glastonburys in my time (those were the days!) I have a soft spot for anything related to the Worthy Farm Annual Shindig - so here's my vote for awesomest Glastonbury video evah - Matt Smith & Orbital doing the Dr Who theme, Glastonbury 2010.
Enjoy! It's friggin fantastic!
And if you want a bit more Glasto Goodness - check out these stunning photos from The Big Picture.
Technorati tags: Glastonbury, YouTube, Matt Smith, Orbital, Dr Who, Glasto, 2010, Dr Who theme, video, The Big Picture, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Cuba Street Carnival
I remember discussing the Cuba Street Carnival with Chris Morley-Hall, back when it was but a twinkle in his eye.
Having been involved with The Gathering for a few years by that point I knew how much effort, blood, sweat and tears it took to create a "happening" out of nothing - how much it took out of you and how long it could take to turn that twinkle of an idea into something real and tangible and successful.
I just want to say how much I admire Chris for having taken up the challenge and making the Cuba Street Carnival into the 150,000-people success it had become by 2009.
I'm not going to speculate on exactly why the Carnival has hit this bump in the road - the stories and reports don't make sense at the moment - there are obviously some big pieces of info missing, and I hope we get the opportunity to find out more soon.
Wellington Batucada, for example, probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for Chris and the Cuba Street Carnival. We originally formed in November 2001 to perform in the Carnival, and we've been a part of it ever since - and in the process have become a part of Wellington's culture in the same way as the Carnival has.
Events like the Rugby Sevens, the Cuba Street Carnival, the Wellington Festival of the Arts and the Fringe Festival are some of what makes Wellington such a special place to live. All those wonderful events bring colour and a little bit of magic to our city, and make it a place to be proud of.
Each of these events also creates its own little set of ripples in the Wellington pond which further enrich our city. Just as The Gathering inspired a whole generation of DJs and makers of electronica to come out of their bedrooms and into the light of live performance, so events like the Cuba Street Carnival provide a huge number of creative people with a wonderful, joyous, fantabulous excuse to push their creativity and their showmanship to new levels every two years.
The Batucada crew, for example, worked every day for two months on our float and our costumes for the 2009 event, and we start rehearsing our performance pieces months before the big day. It's always been a huge part of who we are and what we do.
Being a part of the Carnival (and winning the Supreme Award) has positive spin-offs for us too - our beginners' course that followed soon after the Carnival last year had more than three times as many participants as normal, and we've continued to get big numbers to our courses since then as well. We continue to grow and improve, and love what we do - and a lot of that is due to our ongoing participation in the Cuba Street Carnival.
Chris can be proud that he has made such a huge contribution to our performing arts culture over the past 10 years, just as we can be proud that our membership of Batucada brings colour to many events in and around the city throughout the year.
I'm completely gutted that there won't be another Carnival next year. I'm crossing my fingers and praying that this will be a temporary hiatus and that we'll all be back again with bells on in 2013 (if not sooner!)
Technorati tags: Cuba Street Carnival, Chris Morley-Hall, Wellington Batucada, Batucada, samba, carnival, Wellington, carnival cancelled, funding, street party, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The sweetest little kitten
Angela and Alice dropped me home after bookclub on Wednesday night, and as I got out of the car I heard a cat miaowing and miaowing. I looked around under the bushes and saw a little tabby kitten in considerable distress. I hadn't seen him around before.
I coaxed him out from his hiding-place and picked him up. Poor little thing. He seemed very happy to see me, so I carried him up the path and before I knew it I was taking him into the house. He was far too young to be left out all alone at night.
We went into the laundry and I gave him some of Winnie and Bailey's food, which he devoured with great enthusiasm. It looked as though he hadn't eaten for a while, although he was in very good condition (perhaps a little thin, but his coat was lovely and his paws weren't at all damaged).
After he'd finished his dinner I took him into the living room to show him to Winnie and Bailey, who were both sitting on the sofa looking extremely unimpressed by our new visitor. I decided to put him down after a while, but Bailey immediately jumped down and began stalking him, so I picked him up again. This wasn't going to be easy.
Eventually I decided to put him in the cat basket, and took him with me into my office while I checked Pets on the Net to see if anyone had lost him. No joy. Winnie and Bailey were hovering around, and every time they came near him he hissed and growled - as did they. He was safe in the basket, but he really didn't like them being near him.
After a while it occurred to me that I could let him explore one room, and lock the other cats out so he'd be safe, so I set up food, water and a litter tray in the drawing room and took him in there. He was so sweet. He had a great time exploring, checking out the furniture and looking out of the window, all the while purring like a crazy thing. His purr was bigger than he was!
Every so often he'd come back to me and nuzzle against my velvet coat, and then he'd go back into the basket and curl up and purr and purr and purr. I fell in love instantly.
I decided he should definitely stay the night, and in the morning I'd canvass the neighbours and see if I could find out who he belonged to.
On Thursday I took a bunch of photos of him and then doorknocked in the neighbourhood, looking for his owners. There were lots of kids home for the school holidays - and if anyone knows the location of a wee kitten it's kids - but no-one knew whose he was. So strange. I rang the local vet to see if anyone was looking for him, but no-one was. They suggested I bring him in to see if he was microchipped, so after a fruitless search for his family amongst my neigbours we went for a drive to the vet.
No microchip, but they offered to take care of him until his family came to claim him. After Winnie and Bailey's complete lack of enthusiasm I reluctantly decided this was probably the best option, so I left him in their capable hands. That evening I put his photo and description on Pets on the Net, and called the vet to see if anyone had called about him, but no-one had.
Since then I've called them every day to see how he's doing, and I popped in for a visit yesterday. Yesterday I also went round the neighbourhoood pasting up FOUND - TABBY KITTEN notices. I figure if anyone's lost him they'll be out looking and a poster is a good way to get their attention.
It's so weird. He's the sweetest, friendliest little kitten in the world (the vet reckons he's between 3 and 4 months old). He's in good condition so I don't think he's wandered far from home. He loves people and has obviously been well taken care of so far - so where is his family and why aren't they looking for him?
If he was mine I'd be completely frantic by now. It's Sunday night and he's been away from home since Wednesday at least. Maybe his family's on holiday and they've got a catsitter feeding him and they haven't realised he's missing (although if he's an only cat you would have thought by now they'd have figured out he's not eating his food).
Or maybe there's a flatmate who's supposed to be keeping an eye on him and they just don't care much whether he's around or not. Or maybe (for whatever crazy reason) he was abandoned by his owners near my house and they simply don't want him any more.
Thank God I found him. Imagine how frightened and cold and lonely he'd be if I hadn't.
If I could, I'd adopt him if his owners don't come forward. But that's not really a possibility - Winnie and Bailey would be most put out and it wouldn't be fair on any of them.
Fortunately, he's such a darling that more than one of the vet staff has their eye on him - and I don't think he's going to have any trouble finding a new home.
Technorati tags: found kitten, tabby kitten, lost pets, Pets on the Net, Kelburn Vet, cats, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Farewell Malcolm McLaren - and thank you
For me, a teenager living in England in 1976, punk was an entirely British phenomenon at the beginning. We weren't really aware of any American punk bands back then - it seemed to us as though it started in London with the Sex Pistols - and that Malcolm and Vivienne's Sex shop provided (in a massively important way) the "look" that went with the sound.
All the bands we loved and pogo'd to and spat at at innumerable gigs in those first two or three years of punk were either English, Irish or Scottish (our discovery of American punks such as The Ramones and Blondie came a couple of years later) - and for us, the clothes were almost as important as the music - and the attitude was equally important.
It was the classic teenage rebellion "fuck you if you're over 25" thing - but in addition (and this was something we'd certainly never come across in popular music before) - it was the DIY ethic. The idea that any one of us could pick up a guitar and form a punk band and that it would be good, and joyous, and wonderful, and angry, and rebellious, and political if we wanted it to be - this was an entirely new concept, and one which we all embraced with great enthusiasm.
I think Malcolm had a lot to do with fostering and developing this ethic, whether he did it deliberately or not.
He lit a fire in those of us at the perfect age to appreciate and adopt all the aspects of punk culture - and what a blaze it was! I'm so incredibly grateful to have had punk as my seminal musical influence. It was a wonderful time to be growing up, and a wonderful soundtrack to my teenage and University years.
I can see shadows of that same DIY ethic coming through at many other times of my life - like travelling to the far side of the world straight after University when no-one we had ever met had even considered doing such a thing; eventually coming to live in NZ even though I didn't know a soul when I arrived; forming a world music band in Welli in the 90s; organising dance parties and eventually getting involved in The Gathering; making our own documentary about TheG; even the freelance and contract web design/dev work I do these days - it's all about making things happen yourself and not relying on anyone else to do it for you.
I learned when I first went travelling that "you can make anything happen if you want it badly enough" - and although I thought I'd figured that one out for myself, in retrospect I think it was a concept that was already sitting in my brain, planted there by all the punk bands I ever saw, and ever loved.
Malcolm McLaren introduced me to the very first of those punk bands, and for that I am extremely grateful.
Technorati tags: Malcolm McLaren, punk, Vivienne Westwood, DIY ethic, rebellion, Sex Pistols, tribute, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Monday, March 29, 2010
No Mining protest - printable placards
I've been having a play around making a few placards for tomorrow's No Mining in NZ's National Parks protest.
The protest will be outside Parliament from 12.30 to 1.30pm - Tuesday 29 March. Please come if you care about our National Parks.
Hope you like the placards. I've put links to the downloadable PDF versions at the end of this post.
National: Selling our heritage for 30 pieces of silver:
John Key: Why didn't you mention mining during the election campaign? [edited 30/03/10 to add the "John Key" bit at the beginning]
No mining in our National Parks:
Brownlee's postcard on Eden Park (with a side-by-side comparison of Waihi goldmine and Eden Park):
Surgical mining is a big lie - like scientific whaling: [edited 30/03/10 to make BIG LIE bigger]
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children:
Downloadable, printable placards
Each PDF consists of five A4 pages - the first is the full slogan so you can see what you're getting. The other four contain a quarter of the slogan each - with an overlap. If you print out all four you can trim them and put them together to make an A2-sized placard. Enjoy!- National: Selling our heritage for 30 pieces of silver (PDF, 288KB)
- John Key: Why didn't you mention mining during the election campaign? (PDF, 388KB)
- No mining in our National Parks (PDF, 388KB)
- Brownlee's postcard on Eden Park (PDF, 4.5MB)
- Surgical mining is a big lie - like scientific whaling (PDF, 260KB)
- We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children (PDF, 372KB)
Technorati tags: No mining, National Parks, protest, demonstration, placards, printable, No Mining in NZ's National Parks, environment, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Save Radio NZ! No mining in NZ's National Parks!
Or... How National And ACT Turned Me Back Into A Political Activist After Many Years Away...
In my dim and distant yoof, when I was still English, I was very politically active. I lived in the UK for most of Thatcher's 17-year reign, and my God it was a tough time to be a leftie.
I protested on behalf of CND (the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament); marched for Save the Whales; opposed the government's anti-gay legislation Clause 28; cheered Bishop Desmond Tutu when he spoke out in Hyde Park against the South African apartheid regime; welcomed Nelson Mandela to freedom at the huge concert in his honour at Wembley Stadium; demonstrated against the Falklands War and the first Gulf War; and was a local organiser in the Anti-Poll Tax campaign (I was at that riot in London - scary times indeed!).
One of the reasons why I finally left the UK was that I was just sick to death of banging my head against what seemed like a brick wall at the time. The day the British people voted the Conservatives in for yet another term (after John Major's coup that dethroned Thatcher as party leader) I was sitting on a little yacht in the Bay of Islands reading the paper and thinking "That's it. I resign. I no longer consider myself to be English. The British people are obviously too bloody stupid to be trusted with any kind of a vote on anything that means anything - and I quit." I've considered myself to be "formerly English" ever since.
Fast forward through the last 17-odd years as a New Zealander - I stopped travelling, settled in NZ, made friends, found a job, found a place to live, found another job, became a web designer/developer, moved house a few more times, eventually bought a house with a garden, got a couple of cats, worked my ass off - and somewhere along the way I lost my political activist streak.
I think it's partly because I was so involved in settling in a new country, which took up a lot of my energy, and partly because Kiwis on the whole are much more laid back and a lot less politically active than yer average pom. Or at least that's been my experience. Don't get me wrong - I still follow politics, I still have great political discussions when I get together with my mates, I'm a member of the Green Party - but in terms of actual activism I seemed to have pretty much given it up.
Until now.
I have National and ACT to thank for that. Yeah - thanks guys! You rock! Not.
I've watched with growing concern as they attack and dismantle one important part of my adopted homeland after another. National Education standards and closing down night classes, Paula "I used to be a beneficiary but now I'm not and you losers can all just GET FUCKED" Bennett's attacks on those least able to fight back, increasing GST when they specifically said they wouldn't, tax cuts for their rich mates and to hell with the rest of you, the Auckland Super City undemocratic debacle... the list goes on and on and on - not to mention pushing through a whole raft of new and potentially unpopular legislation under the cloak of "urgency" so they don't even have to discuss it in Parliament and no-one gets the chance to oppose it.
The final two straws that broke this particular camel's back have been their attack on Radio New Zealand's funding, and now - most egregious of all in my opinion - their plans to mine in our National Parks.
I'm so outraged by their mining plans I can't even begin to express how outraged I am. Talk about short-sighted! Do they not have children and grandchildren to whom they'd like to leave the few pieces of pristine wilderness we have left? Apparently not - or at least, if they do, they apparently don't care about them too much.
There are not many things that would get me to leave my nice comfortable life and go chain myself to a bulldozer in protest - but this is certainly one of them. This is our taonga, our heritage, it's what makes us special and unique, and it's what brings in billions of dollars a year in tourism - AND YOU WANT TO DIG IT UP???? You greedy bastards. How dare you???
I actually began my reawakening to political activism by joining the Save Radio New Zealand Facebook group a month or so ago. What a cliché eh? Join a Facebook group and do your bit for the protest! Except that... the group grew so quickly and became so motivated to get up off the couch and actually do something, that the media began to take notice. And the politicians, I think, have also begun to pay attention.
Whether this is because yer average pollie doesn't really "get" social media like Facebook but secretly thinks they should, and they hear that Web2.0 is the Next Big Thing and think they should show some interest so as to get down with da kidz - or whether it's because they also know that for every person who actually gets off their ass and joins a Facebook group (easy though it is to do), there are 100 others standing behind them, agreeing with them, but not actually ever getting round to pressing the blue "join" button, I don't know, but it does actually seem to be having some effect.
Anyway, whatever the reason, people-who-count started taking notice and the Facebook group grew and grew. Hundreds and hundreds of members made comments on the group's page (and continue to do so). Gaining 20,000 members in a little over a month is pretty impressive for our small country, even if it is "just" on Facebook.
It soon became clear that the Save Radio New Zealand people weren't all pointy-headed liberals from Wellington like they said we were - we come from all over the country - the world, even; we come from all kinds of different backgrounds and age groups; and perhaps most importantly for those politicians watching, we come from right across the political spectrum. There are many people in the group who voted National and are now wondering what the heck they signed up for. And they are not happy.
Some interesting things start happening when you join a group of any kind. Firstly you realise you're not alone, and that there are tons of others from all over the place who agree with you. That feels good! It gives you hope! Then someone comes up with an idea for more direct action - and all of a sudden instead of trying to persuade a couple of your mates to demonstrate outside Parliament about this thing you care about, you've got hundreds of people to get motivated with - who already care about the same thing that you do. It's brilliant.
As I walked back to work after the Protest Picnic outside Parliament a few weeks ago, my portable transistor radio still switched on, trailing RNZ's music and words behind me like a stream of bubbles in the breeze, it occurred to me that I felt pretty good having got out there and taken the time to stand up for something I believe in. The last time I did that was the massive protest against the War on Iraq, but that was a long time ago.
It also occurred to me that as I'm a web designer/developer, I have a skill that might be of use to the campaign, and that as part of my activist re-awakening, I could actually do something more to help. That night I registered saveradionz.co.nz and offered my services to the campaign organisers. I've spent the last couple of weeks on WordPress finding and re-styling a suitable theme and writing the first 30-odd pages of the website, and we did a soft launch of the site at the weekend. It's getting a lot of hits already.
It's good to be a part of something, and it's good to be back fighting for what I think is right.
Last night I found Metiria Turei's No mining in NZ's National Parks Facebook group, and all day I've watched the number of members creep up. There's a lot of cross-fertilisation that can happen in a social networking environment (hence the term "networking"), and I know there are many people who, like me, have joined both groups. I know, because I invited a whole bunch of 'em myself! That's another awesome thing about Facebook - the "invite friends to join" function. Talk about helping groups to go viral! It's brilliant!
One of the things an online group can do is to help members fight in all the range of legal ways possible - again it's about getting the information out there and the motivation that comes from being part of that group. The No mining in NZ's National Parks group will be helping us to make submissions to the innocently-named Schedule 4 Stocktake discussion paper, and I'm most definitely making a submission with their help. This is too important an issue to sit by and hope someone else does the protesting for me. I have to do it myself, and I have to make my voice heard in every way I can.
I'm hoping the NIMBY vote will kick in in Auckland, especially about Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel, but there's the risk that (assuming this isn't the most politically stupid move ever) they're announcing these two places first so that they can then "back down" in the face of massive opposition - "ooh look we listened to the people!" - and then quietly go and mine somewhere else like the West Coast or Stewart Island where they think the opposition won't be as strong. We need to stop that from happening, and that means we all have to do our bit - including me.
I renewed my Green Party membership today (and gave them a bit of a donation to help the cause) and I also joined Forest & Bird today. Hey government! You want to stop the Department of Conservation from talking to our oldest and most well-respected conservation group? You want to start gagging people like that? Oh yeah - that's really going to work well. In fact - just because you've done that - I think I'll join them. Go check out the banners on their homepage - they're really cool. I particularly like "Forest & Bird. HYSTERICAL about nature since 1923". Ha!
It seems to me that an issue such as freezing (and thereby in reality, cutting) funding to our only remaining public broadcaster and then expecting a change of mindset at said broadcaster in order to live within those diminishing means - or an issue such as opening up our pristine(ish) wilderness to foreign mining companies so that they can rape and pillage te whenua to their heart's content - has to be shut down fast, shut down hard, and shut down now.
If we don't get off our collective arses and force the government to back down fully on both these issues, then elements of our country, our heritage, our culture and our landscape will be lost, and gone for ever.
As Oscar Wilde once said:What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
...which seems to sum up our current government's mindset pretty well.
...and as Joni Mitchell famously said (or, rather, sang):Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
Technorati tags: Save Radio New Zealand, No Mining in NZ's National Parks, Facebook, conservation, mining, National, ACT, protest, political activism, Radio New Zealand, Forest & Bird, Green Party, environmentalism, social networking, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Monday, March 08, 2010
"Would you like to take part in a 60-second survey?"
"Would you like to take part in a 60-second survey?" is the opening line from many of the unsolicited phone calls I receive these days. Being less than enthusiastic about strangers trying to sell me shit or ask me intrusive questions over the phone, my response is usually something along the lines of "why, what are you selling?"
"Oh I promise you we're not selling you anything at all - we're just doing a quick survey about the economy" says the girl on the phone this afternoon. "Oh," I reply, "do you want to know what I think about the economy? Are you doing an opinion poll?" - because I don't mind opinion polls (I think quietly to myself).
She edges round my question without giving me a straight answer, and when I ask her what her company does, she tells me they provide financial advice for businesses - or something along those, lines, anyway.
So I say OK, because I figure, well, what's 60 seconds out of my life? I can handle that. I'm waiting for the next two questions because I know exactly what they will be. The first is my age bracket. I fall within it so I answer in the affirmative.
The second question is the kicker. It is always - and I mean always "do you own your own home?"
Hmmm. Why would they want to know that? Gosh, really - I wonder why?
I lie and say "no" because I have realised it's the single most effective way to get these people off the phone.
I have never ever had to continue with one of these "surveys" when I tell them I'm a renter. Goodness me! Don't they want to gather the opinions of people who rent along with those who owe hundreds of thousands to whatever bank was kind enough to give them a mortgage? Apparently not. How very strange.
Could it be because they're actually planning to sell me something further on down the line - if I give them the right answers of course - of which the most important, apparently, is "do you have enough income to get a mortgage and therefore potentially have sufficient income to be tempted by whatever shit we're really planning on trying to sell you?"
Of course they are. They'll either store all my details away for a cold-call later on when they finally reveal whatever it is they're really selling - or perhaps they'll put my details together with the contact details of hundreds of other people and sell them in bulk to some company that wants to sell me whatever it is that they sell.
Which means - goodness me - the girl on the phone wasn't exactly telling the whole truth, now was she? OK so she wasn't trying to sell me anything right that minute, but her response to my "no I don't own my own hone - I rent" answer couldn't have been clearer.
"Oh well, that lets you off the hook, then! Thanks very much - goodbye!" and with that cheery farewell she's off to hassle the next poor sucker dumb enough to have their name and number in the phone book.
Yeah thanks a lot cheery girl on the phone. I've changed my mind - that's 60 seconds of my life I'll never get back. I'm so over people lying to me on the the phone to try and get useful info from me that they'll use against me later on. Thanks very much - goodbye!
Technorati tags: consumer surveys, cold-calling, intrusive phone calls, do you own your own home, things that annoy me, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Happy centenary, house!
100 years ago today, my house was conceived by A Stubbs, Architect. It's there in black and white on the architect's plan I got from the City Council.
22 February 1910. I'm not sure when exactly it was "born" (built), so we'll have to go for conception instead.
It's amazing when you think about it. Imagine what my house has seen over the past century!
My house was the first one built on the hill. Back then it was surrounded by ugly bare earth up and down the hillside, and a rough road (track) below. These days it's surrounded by trees and bush and other people's houses. Except for in front. We have a great view across the valley in front. I rather like that.
I wonder if there were as many tuis and keas in the valley when my house was first built, as there are today? I bet there weren't. Living near the Karori Sanctuary definitely has its advantages.
My house was built for one JS Rutter, Esq., and it has the nicest vibe of any house I've ever lived in. People always remark on how welcoming and friendly it feels. 
Winnie and Bailey often focus quite intently on the ghosts in the room, and I get a strong vibe that we have good ghosts living here.
It needs a bit of TLC at the moment - the garden's a bit of a mess, the window frames urgently need painting and the weatherboards'll need doing in a couple of years, but it's doing pretty well for a place that's been standing for a hundred years.
I love my house. I have been known to stop and hug the doorframes in passing, on more than one occasion. It's pretty much my favourite place in the whole world.
Happy birthday, house! May you have many, many more.
Technorati tags: house, home, centenary, Wellington, New Zealand, wooden villa, JS Rutter, A Stubbs, architect, 22 February 1910, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Well, we didn't win an ONYA this year...
...but that doesn't mean we can't continue our great work and win one next year!
During his introductory comments at the ONYAs Che quoted someone-or-other who had said that you should never enter your work for an award because you'll get discouraged if you don't win, and you'll stop doing the good work you're already doing because you'll think it's not good enough. Che disagreed with this sentiment, and so do we.
At WebWeaver Productions we love doing what we do - we love designing and building beautiful accessible websites - and we know we're doing it pretty well - both because our clients love our work, and also because we were nominated four times in three categories for three different ONYAs.
Our Environmental Protection Authority website was nominated for Best Accessibility and Best Use of HTML/CSS, our Optimation website was also nominated for Best Use of HTML/CSS, and my website The Gathering archives was nominated for Best Content (Personal).
We were disappointed not to win - but completely honoured to be there in the first place, in such illustrious company.
Radio New Zealand won both the Best Accessibility category and the Best Use of HTML/CSS category - and it couldn't have gone to a nicer group of people. They've been under siege from National this week, and a huge cheer went up when they won their awards. It's great to see such a large organisation striving to keep their website as accessible as possible, creating the best quality code they can create, and working hard to maintain their high standards over time. Well done guys!
If you want to express your support for keeping Radio NZ commercial-free and out from under the thumb of political or commercial influence, you might like to join the Save Radio New Zealand Facebook group. As I write this I see it's almost at the 10,000 fans mark - not bad for a group that's only been in existence for four days. I think National might have a fight on their hands if they pursue this...
My dear friend Zef Fugaz ended up winning the Best Content (Personal) category for his fantastic blog, zef[a]media - which he's been writing for years and years. It's completely brilliant - and shows very clearly just why he's one of New Zealand's most experienced and most well-respected user experience web professionals. Great job, Zef!
Being nominated for an ONYA (or four!) is especially thrilling because the judges are pretty much like superstars in our universe. It's rather awesome knowing that Alex Wright (New York Times), Amy Hoy (Slash7), Bek Hodgson (Etsy), Brian Fling (pinch/zoom), Donna Spencer (Maadmob), Jason Ryan (State Services Commission), Rachel McAlpine (Contented Enterprises), Russ Weakley (Max Design), and Thomas Fuchs (script.aculo.us) might have taken a look at our work...
It inspires all of us to keep working, keep learning, keep on striving for perfection, and keep on doing the best job we can possibly do. Our websites are made with love, just as Webstock and the ONYAs are made with love.
projection mapping + visuals: thedarkroom.tv audio + sound design: jeramiah ross aka module wellington town hall new zealand / 19.02.10 (larger version here)
Thank you everyone involved in both Webstock and the ONYAs for an absolutely wonderful week. You really do rock! WE LOVE YOU!
Technorati tags: ONYA, ONYAs, web awards, Webstock, WebWeaver Productions, Che Tamahori, Environmental Protection Authority, Optimation, The Gathering archives, nominees, finalists, winner, Best Accessibility, Best Use of HTML/CSS, Best Content (Personal), Radio New Zealand, Save Radio New Zealand, Facebook, Zef Fugaz, zef[a]media, thedarkroom, module, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Reason #567 why I love Webstock - attention to detail
So there I was, thinking about what to wear for the ONYAs - and wondering where the heck I was going to stash my ONYAs clothes during the conference on Friday.
Should I wear my ONYAs outfit all day? Not such a great idea - it'll get all creased and diminish the fun of dressing up for dinner.
Should I plan to go home in between and get changed? Not enough time really.
Am I going to have to lug it around in my bag all day? Bad idea - it'll be a pain to have to carry it around and it'll get all mashed up in my bag.
Or should I ask the lovely dudes at Shift if I could stash it there and hope they haven't all gone home by the time I want to retrieve it? OK as long as they don't all go home early that day, leaving my clothes behind locked doors and me with nothing special to wear.
Turns out the Webstock crew really have thought of everything. In addition to blogging about what geek designer formal actually means, they've very kindly arranged a place where we can store our outfits during the day, and changing rooms for us to use between the time Webstock ends and the ONYAs start.
I love a team that pays attention to the details! Thanks, Webstock crew! You rock!
Technorati tags: Webstock, web conference, ONYAs, geek designer formal, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Monday, January 25, 2010
IE8 bugs in Windows 7 but not in Windows XP?
In the space of the last two days we've come across two completely different IE8 bugs (one in a Facebook app and the other on a new website) that occur in Windows 7 - but that are not happening in IE8 on a Windows XP machine.
Oh my lawd. Not only do we have to continue bug-fixing in IE6 and IE7 (when will that ever end?), but now we're seeing IE8 bugs that didn't exist in XP, but are showing up in the supposedly newer and better Windows 7. Microsoft really are deeply, deeply crap, aren't they?
I was able to fix the Facebook app bug (sight unseen because I don't have a Win7 machine) by applying the same bug fix to IE8 that I used on IE6 and IE7. In this instance it was a HasLayout issue, which is normally fixed with zoom:1 - and which I fixed with the old Holly Hack in Facebook cos Facebook returns errors for zoom.
Anyway, in this case a) the fix for IE6/7 worked for IE8 and b) it was the kind of fix that you can include for IE8 in Win7 that won't break IE8 where it's not needed in WinXP.
But what if I'd needed a fix for, say, the duplicate characters bug that requires a negative margin of -3px on the opposite margin to the direction of the float? If you include it in a compliant browser like FireFox it can break the layout in some situations, which is one reason why we put IE fixes in conditional stylesheets. But how do you include a conditional stylesheet for IE8 in Win7 without also including it for IE8 in WinXP? As far as I know that's not possible. I smell trouble!
The second instance of the Win7-bug occurred in a website we're building that has a bunch of jQuery in it for sliding images. At the moment I have absolutely no clue why it's happening, nor can I see it because it's not happening in WinXP. My first approach will be to see if I have any fixes already in place for IE6 or IE7, and add them to the conditional stylesheet for IE8. Maybe that'll work. I just hope it doesn't break IE8 in WinXP, assuming it works at all.
Has anyone else come across this IE8/Win7 issue?
Technorati tags: IE8, IE7, IE6, Internet Explorer, bug, Windows 7, Windows XP, conditional comments, stylesheet, CSS, HTML, bug-fixing, WebWeaver Productions, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
A CSS/jQuery solution for creating multi-column lists
I seem to have found a solution for one of those front-end developer "Holy Grail" challenges - getting an unordered list to rearrange itself into two (or more) columns if the content of the first column gets too long.
Before I explain how to do it, I should point out that the vast majority of this solution is already out there in the form of a neat jQuery plugin called Columnizer jQuery written by Adam Wulf. I had nothing to do with the creation of it - I just stumbled upon it when I was googling for a solution, and wondered if I could adapt it for my particular layout problem. I added a bit of additional jQuery so it would do exactly what I wanted, and to my complete astonishment - it worked. Amazing!
There are a bunch of CSS-only solutions for multi-column lists which kinda sorta work - as long as you have a static list and can attach classes to various individual <li> tags. They generally work on the principle of moving some of the list items to a different position on the page using CSS - so that the list remains intact within the HTML, but appears to be broken up into multiple columns when viewed in your browser.
The CSS Swag: Multi-Column Lists article at A List Apart is one of the best examples of this, and in fact shows a whole bunch of different ways of achieving this goal.
However (and it's a big "however") - none of these solutions will work with a dynamically-generated list where you don't know from page to page how many items will be in that list, and where you can't add your own individual classes or IDs to each <li> in advance.
A perfect example of this situation - and the one I was wrestling with - is when you're building a set of templates which will be integrated into a CMS, and the unordered list in question is the subnav - which has to fit into a fixed-height space.
Here's what the subnav in my design normally looks like:
But... I do not know how many pages the client will end up creating within each subsection of their new website. What I do know is that the number of list items in each subnav menu will vary from section to section, and will be generated automatically by the CMS (which means I can't add classes or IDs).
So this is what I want it to do when the number of items in the list gets too long for the fixed-height space to contain them all:
One thing to note: you need to be sure that your client isn't going to use massively long names for their pages, as these will generally translate into massively long links in the subnav, in which case you will soon run out of room - especially in the 2-column layout. You can pre-empt this by training them to use short page names and/or re-name them for the subnav. Most CMSs will let you do this - Silverstripe, for example, which is what we're using for this site - has an additional field in each page where you can define the text you want to be used as the subnav link. Very sensible.
Adam Wulf's plugin is designed to automatically lay out your content in newspaper column format. You can specify either column width and/or height or a static number of columns. I noticed that one of the lines of code in his jQuery was
$('li').addClass("dontsplit"); ...which made me think he might have included something to ensure that lists which get split into two different columns still work properly - and he has! Clever man. We're 90% of the way there already!I have nowhere near the technical expertise required to write my own jQuery plugins - or even to understand all the code within a plugin - but I do have enough of an understanding of jQuery to be able to utilise what others have created and adapt it to my own requirements - sometimes.
I'm not even going to try and explain how Adam's plugin works - because I don't actually know - I'm simply going to highlight the bits you need to make this list do its thing, and then show you the bit of jQuery I added which makes the list do one thing when it's short - and another when it's long.
Here's how I did it...
I began with Adam's Sample 5 page. He describes this example as one that:
Shows fixed width and height columns scrolling horizontally...which seemed to be what I was looking for.
I viewed the source of his example page and created a copy for myself - test-columnizer. Then I replaced his example text with a simple unordered list, exactly like the subnav code I'm going to be using. You can see my test example here - test-columnizer2. Because his columns were initially set to be 400px high I put a whole bunch of list items in my test list to make sure it was working properly.
In the jQuery function I removed
$('h1').addClass('dontend'); because I didn't need it, and replaced it with $('li').addClass("dontsplit"); The class "dontsplit" is built into the plugin and prevents individual list items from being split into two columns. The jQuery now looks like this: $(function(){
$('li').addClass("dontsplit");
$('.wide').columnize({
width : 300,
height : 400
});
}); I also removed the <div class="thin"> </div> in the HTML (you can see it towards the end of the page in test-columnizer) because, again, I don't need it. This "thin" div in the plugin can be set to contain any overflow from columns created within the "wide" div - you can see an example on Adam's website - Sample 4 page. Because I don't intend to have any overflow in this design, it can come out.The next step was to style the list so that it looked more like my design, and to place it inside my subnav div, which is a fixed width, fixed height container. You can see an example here - test-columnizer3.
I altered the jQuery to this:
$(function(){
$('li').addClass("dontsplit");
$('.wide').columnize({
width : 90,
height : 150
});
}); ...which tells the plugin to make each column 90px wide by 150px high.In addition to my specific CSS styling for the subnav box and the list items, you'll also notice I made a couple of changes to Adam's existing CSS styling. I set a specific width on .wide, like this:
.wide {
clear: both;
width: 190px !important;
} Without this width setting, the total width of .wide is calculated by the plugin, and ends up as 180px (2 columns at 90px each = 180px). I wanted a gutter of 10px between the two columns, which meant that the .wide div needed to be 190px wide in total. By adding !important to the style in the CSS I can force it to override the plugin's calculated width.Adam has very helpfully coded the plugin to add a class of "last" to the last column in the div, which meant I could then add this style to my CSS:
#subnav .wide .last {
float: right !important;
} ...to force the last column to float right - so creating that gutter of 10px between the first (left-hand) column and the last (right-hand) column. Again, by adding !important I can force it to override the plugin's default float: left.Here's the example page again - test-columnizer3 - in case you missed the link earlier.
OK - so now let's look at what the subnav does if the number of items in the list is quite small - test-columnizer4.
Hmmm. That's not exactly what I want. If there are just a few list items, and we don't actually need two columns to fit them all in, I want a single column that stretches right across the subnav space - like this:
...not like this:
In other words I need an if... statement in the jQuery that will trigger the columnize plugin only when the number of list items exceeds the space available in the first column.
Firstly I defined a variable maxHeight of 150px, and then created my if... statement which basically says "if the height of the .wide div is greater than 150px, then run the jQuery plugin." The whole thing looks like this:
var maxHeight = 150;I decided to set my variable as a maximum height rather than by counting the actual number of items and setting a maximum number of items in each column because a) individual list items might sometimes wrap onto more than one line - which would mess up the calculation and b) if you're viewing the website in an older browser like IE6 or IE7 and you've increased the font size, it will again mess up the calculation (although I guess I could have overcome that issue by using ems).
$(function(){
if ($('.wide').height() > maxHeight)
$('.wide').columnize({
width : 90,
height : 150
});
});
You can see an example of the completed solution here: test-columnizer5.
And here's the same solution with a few more items in the list to show how it rearranges itself into 2 columns when necessary: test-columnizer6.
Perfect! Now the subnav list spreads nicely across the whole div, unless there are too many list items to fit into the fixed-height space, in which case it splits into two separate lists in two columns, with each column only half the width of the original single column.
I've tested the solution in IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Opera and Safari on both PC and Mac where appropriate, and it works just fine. Incredible.
Thanks a million to Adam Wulf for coming up with an awesome plugin that allowed me to do exactly what I wanted with just a little tweak at the very end. It's a great piece of work!
I hope that by blogging about it I'll flag it as a solution for the multi-column list problem, which will make it easier to find for those googling for a fix. Let me know if it works for you.
Technorati tags: multi-column list, 2-column list, css, jQuery, jQuery plugin, Adam Wulf, Columnizer jQuery, Columnizer jQuery plugin, break a list into columns, fixed height, fixed width, unordered list, ordered list, web development, web design, WebWeaver Productions, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
