Democracy in seven words for Xmas 2005

If you were asked to give a definition of democracy in seven words, could you do it? I've always believed the best way to do something is to keep it simple. It applies even more so in engineering if you want reliability. You might ask why I draw the analogy with engineering. Well engineering is the science for the control and use of power to achieve certain outcomes like building roads and machines. Democracy is a mechanism for delivering outcomes. These outcomes are assumptions that society should be a certain way. For me society should be fair and just. So democracy is a machine for delivering those outcomes.

Let's return to my question of a seven word definition of democracy. Have you got it? My definition of democracy goes like this... Majority rule, minority protection, shared economic benefits. It's so simple but it's the foundation for further discussion. Each part is absolutely necessary for this simple definition to work. In this formula everything is a balancing act between different groups that make up a society. On the one hand there is the powerful and on the other the powerless, and often the powerless need to be protected from the powerful.

How are majorities made up and what governs their sense of right and wrong? Can it all be achieved by balancing power and sharing economic benefits, and who is the arbiter of such things? It was Plato who said that without absolutes we cannot move and so it is with democracy. Let's leave that there for now, perhaps you have some thoughts on this.

Seasons Greetings
Pepp

A CITY FOR US AND HOW THEY VOTED

Last week two rather prominent Wellington citizens came down to Council to protest the rates that their Oriental Bay properties are now attracting. They have my sympathy as I know that these two residents are local identities in the Bay with family connections to the homes they continue to live in. One of the underlying causes of the rather steep rate rises is the shift in the rating differential from business to residential rates. For some time I have argued that the commercial sector must pay its share of the cost of running the city. Commercial rates are able to be passed on and deducted as expenses; no such opportunity exists for residential ratepayers. Hence the residential rate should be much lower than the commercial rate.

At the last Council meeting that a rate vote was taken on the continued shifting of business rates onto residents' rates bill, this is how the vote went.
Those voting in favour of business were:
Mayor Prendergast
Deputy Mayor Shaw
Cr McKinnon
Cr Wain
Cr Morrison
CrArmstrong
Cr Foster
Cr Goulden
Those voting against were:
Cr Pepperell
Cr Ruben
Cr Ritchie
Cr Gill
Cr Wade-Brown
Cr Cook
Cr Ahipene-Mercer

The change to the rates differential in favour of business was passed by one vote.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Peak Oil

Back in the late 1970s while attending the Institute Of Criminology at Victoria University I was fortunate enough to meet the then CEO of the Commission For The Future, Commander Dick Ryan. He had been invited to give a lecture on Future Senarios. I remember thinking it was like listening to a Bible prophecy from someone like Hal Lindsey in his book "The Late Great Planet Earth". There would be a third world war over oil. Dick Ryan said that would escalate into a nuclear war, then there would be a conventional war over the remaining resources. The world was over-populated and we were headed for disaster. It was fantastic and far removed from every day existence here in God's own. All we really knew was a welfare state from the womb tomb and life seemed pretty good.

As I look back it all seems so unreal how so much that was taken for granted was swept away in just a few short years. Twenty six years later Dick Ryan's senario for the future has proved to be uncannily accurate, save for a few details. I think of him often as he seemed so incongruous to me. He was a tall good looking man and articulate enough to hold my attention and impress on my memory. Back in those days I first heard the expression "monolithic fuel based culture".

What I hadn't realized was that successive presidents in USA had been exposed to the same Armageddon script but in a more literal way. It is this influence that has shaped US foreign policy and continues to drive it towards a final hour.

This week a group of Peak Oil representatives met with the men from the Ministry For Economic Development. I had been asked by Robert Atack to join him, Ihaia Puketapu, Derek Wilson and Roz Brown in a round table discussion about peak oil with Ralph D Samuelson and Roger Fairclough. It was a most agreeable meeting between people with a high commitment to reasoned discussion about the serious issue of oil depletion. What transpired in that discussion was that the men from the ministry had been thinking about energy for transport and industry but had some how overlooked the bi products from oil. I talked about the miracle product plastic and how it had given birth to modernity. For the sake of Roger and Ralph ( who comes from the USA) here is a reminder of some of the products that are bi products of oil that is peaking. PeakOil is the technical term of demand outstripping supply.


Plastics
The following is a list of just some products that may disappear with oil depletion.
Air conditioners, ammonia, anti-histamines, antiseptics, artificial turf, asphalt, aspirin, balloons, bandages, boats, bottles, bras, bubble gum, butane, cameras, candles, car batteries, car bodies, carpet, cassette tapes, caulking, CDs, chewing gum, cold, combs/brushes, computers, contacts, cortisone, crayons, cream, denture adhesives, deodorant, detergents, dice, dishwashing liquid, dresses, dryers, electric blankets, electrician’s tape, fertilisers, fishing lures, fishing rods, floor wax, footballs, glues, glycerin, golf balls, guitar strings, hair, hair colouring, hair curlers, hearing aids, heart valves, heating oil, house paint, ice chests, ink, insect repellent, insulation, jet fuel, life jackets, linoleum, lip balm, lipstick, loudspeakers, medicines, mops, motor oil, motorcycle helmets, movie film, nail polish, oil filters, paddles, paint brushes, paints, parachutes, paraffin, pens, perfumes, petroleum jelly, plastic chairs, plastic cups, plastic forks, plastic wrap, plastics, plywood adhesives, refrigerators, roller-skate wheels, roofing paper, rubber bands, rubber boots, rubber cement, rubbish bags, running shoes, saccharine, seals, shirts (non-cotton), shoe polish, shoes, shower curtains, solvents, solvents, spectacles, stereos, sweaters, table tennis balls, tape recorders, telephones, tennis rackets, thermos, tights, toilet seats, toners, toothpaste, transparencies, transparent tape, TV cabinets, typewriter/computer ribbons, tyres, umbrellas, upholstery, vaporisers, vitamin capsules, volleyballs, water pipes, water skis, wax, wax paper.

By now you might be beginning to get some idea that things are serious with our dependency on oil. It's half used up according to one major oil company. Can you trust them?