Tara Okan - Water Scientist, Political Activist, Father of Four Children

Interviewed by Tim LynchApril 9, 2014
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To choose our politicians not because they are leaders or statesmen but because they may make more money than other people, does not translate to mean that we as a country should vote for such a person thinking this politician will also make more money for the country. This is a fallacy, they only go on to set themselves up to make more money for themselves further on.

In todays world, we as consumers are being targeted to consume as many material resources as can be paid for and when we purchase a bargain, usually as a ubiquitous, toxic plastic article it is very soon in a landfill somewhere and we end up poisoning our resources and our future.

The loss of ethics and the understanding of what it means is being lost in our runaway consumer society.

Tara states that engagement with one another was what made us a great nation and the illusion that we are all separate is more of an idea proposed by the people who want to divide us and rule.

We are a fortunate country in that we can recover the environment and have clean air, water and food  chain etc. We are also, not so much in debt that if we do not sell off any more assets (the ones that make the revenue for us to pay off the debt) we may very well be able to create our way into a resilient and self reliant, sustainable country and society.

It is both your fault and my fault that we have the situation that is happening in this country - why? Because we did not make the effort. Over 1 million did not vote in the last election.

Do we want to be bothered? Or, do we want to become a people who think and decide to take strategic action at the polling booth? Look at the lives that have been lost over the centuries as ordinary people courageously strived under horrendous hardship to have a say in their community. To insult these pioneers, these suffragette’s by turning our backs on these hard fought rights to universal suffrage, is not an option, especially in our world of decreasing freedoms, ethics and values.

In NZ it is against the law not to register to vote.  Whereas in Australia they have taken it a step further, and that it is against the law not to vote.

Look at a possible tax incentive to vote and those who don't vote pay more taxes?

This interview covers much subject matter:

Conservatism and what it means - to Conserve. Old people planting trees, knowing that they will never walk under the shade of them. Thinking forward as to what will we bequeath to our children and grand children’s future.

Learning from advanced Northern European methods.

Environment - In Sweden, recycling is so efficient that now Sweden has to import other peoples recycled (rubbish) items so as to keep their industries going.  They have not turned their whole country into an economic model as we have done under the RMA the Resource Management Act. Recycling is part of the common vernacular through out Swedish business and Government.

Education - In Finland, though not on the same wages scale as doctors, teachers are honoured as  professionals. The Finnish educational system caters for parental and grand parental input in their highly acclaimed educational system. Academically they have one of the highest success rates in the world.

The TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is a method to outflank NZ’s sovereignty. With regard to health, the TPPA has NZ in its sights the dismantling of PHARMAC and quite possibly the taking over of our hospitals by offshore corporations.

This also covers housing and overseas ownership of NZ, when we can not buy land in Fiji, China or Japan, why not instead lease this land and keep the ownership in this country?

GDP and the measure of how much growth we have where as like Dr. Ron Colman’s development of the Genuine Progress Index for Nova Scotia in Canada which includes the other side of the equation where car crashes, house fires, burglaries, storm damage and accident and sickness are factored into the whole economic understanding. And the books are balanced accordingly.

As a water scientist, Tara talks about:

The degradation of water, rives, lakes, selling off of NZ, that large corporate farms now may have only one house on them, where once many smaller farms built up the community as there were more homes and families. The advent of the larger and larger farms, are depopulating the community of families and this trend is escalating in NZ.

It’s our fault, as the government was designed to be a peoples process but now we are a people that are not engaged but instead disengaged. What can we do to reignite our interest in our own governance, be it at a local or a national level?

Our country is run as a business however, it can not be run solely as a business as there lies the fundamental difference that not everything has a monetary factor attached to it. Such as what about the knowledge banks of the elderly, and their input into community and society. The elderly have much wisdom and experience to offer. Lets validate them and bring them more into community decisions.

There is a way through this if we use the enlightened consciousness that we have been imbued with.

We need to be more involved with each other, we need to be able to pay it forward and at the same time as talking with our neighbours engage in pulling the strings of community together.

For New Zealand as a socially conscious country, we can once again be a global moral leader of how a small synergistic nation can once again be the emerging microcosm for the planetary macrocosm.

Finally, Tara will also tell you the story how he has been able to secure the name of: The New Zealand Party.

Contact: tara [at] NZactions.org.nz

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Tim Lynch

Tim Lynch, is a New Zealander, who is fortunate in that he has whakapapa, or a bloodline that connects him to the Aotearoan Maori. He has been involved as an activist for over 40 years - within the ecological, educational, holistic, metaphysical, spiritual & nuclear free movements. He sees the urgency of the full spectrum challenges that are coming to meet us, and is putting his whole life into being an advocate for todays and tomorrows children. 'To Mobilise Consciousness.'

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