A thought about nature...

Yesterday, my son got on a plane headed for Christchurch, New Zealand - to do a university research project and follow that with a tour round the country doing those dangerous sports parents would rather not know about.

And between setting off from Heathrow and arriving for a refuelling stop in LA, Christchuch suffered a massive earthquake - its second such occurance in six months. And this time at least 65 people were killed alongside destroyed buildings and burst pipes.

After a couple of hours parental panic, it struck me that yet again nature reminds us of how little we control the planet. Reminds us of our hubris. And reminds us of our capacity to respond to these events with compassion, support and love.

....

How to do it George!

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From former NZ Minister, Maurice McTigue:

When we started this process with the Department of Transportation, it had 5,600 employees. When we finished, it had 53. When we started with the Forest Service, it had 17,000 employees. When we finished, it had 17. When we applied it to the Ministry of Works, it had 28,000 employees. I used to be Minister of Works, and ended up being the only employee. In the latter case, most of what the department did was construction and engineering, and there are plenty of people who can do that without government involvement. And if you say to me, “But you killed all those jobs!”—well, that’s just not true. The government stopped employing people in those jobs, but the need for the jobs didn’t disappear. I visited some of the forestry workers some months after they’d lost their government jobs, and they were quite happy. They told me that they were now earning about three times what they used to earn—on top of which, they were surprised to learn that they could do about 60 percent more than they used to! The same lesson applies to the other jobs I mentioned.

It's been done before. What's stopping you?