First things first, I'm having the week off next week due to a wonderful Monday holiday, Labour Day. It commemorates New Zealand workers winning the right for an eight-hour working day. Yet another progressive landmark that has been eroded. In 1840 Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington, kudos to anyone who knows the ordinances that destroyed that right.
But the world is a strange place, sometimes we take steps backward. Sometimes we take steps forward. It's been a weird week, climate change, fires, hurricanes, and yet there are some amazing steps being taken with clean energy, and increasing acknowledgement of the jobs and opportunities that clean energy offers, along with the hope of saving us from climate change.
There's also been a rise of people, both men and women, standing up and saying, "me too" in response to the revelations that Harvey Weinstein's abuse of women. Sexual abuse has long been a taboo subject with little and no support for the victims, and we need to move away from that. That such behaviour can be such an open secret, and that some very well-known women were caught up in it was somewhat of a revelation. But as of yet there have been few moves to support the powerless. Given the lack of enthusiasm of kicking out several other well-known abusers from Academy membership, it appears there's still a long way to go.
So there we have it, the good news is opinions can change, and opinions are the first step to real change. The bad news is, change takes time.
But if we can imagine it, we can do it.
Wild is the wind: the resource that could power the world
And if we can make the world a better place, we should.
Have a great fortnight
A.J. Ponder
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