They’ve cut down all the trees in Europe so why not hereBy M. JOHN LATHAMThe State Government's new program to attempt some assurance for better land-use planning outcomes will undoubtedly follow the interesting little macrocosm set by the waning globe. We see the extremes in people’s values in global politics and when you count in big corporate commerce and political survival traditions we see it here in Tasmanian land politics. Kyoto, oil in Alaska, bomb craters in good landscape, democracy and dictatorship, “Is god the devil or is the devil god?”, “There’s no god but I’m more kosher than you”. “They’ve cut down all the trees in Europe so why not here”. New York's rampant and they love it. Money can’t buy love and divorce is epidemic, but not as important as interest rates. And it’s interest rates that confirm the mindset that is going to wipe the gloat off the Tasmanians who can see what we have to cherish. Our people voted for interest rates over anything, so are they going to turn away when a big corporation says it’ll bring money, no. And if there is to be a miniscule of moderation whose values are going to prevail? People are the same the world over. But maybe Tasmania is a little blessed and therefore a little saner. Courage - not much! Vision and imagination - don’t properly fit the bureaucracy (the fluorescent tubes drain it out). And then how do we write it down so it can’t be torn apart? And so it can be understood by the next generation? There’s something far more fundamental than a simple plan for our island’s land use that must be established. Our people’s chaotic and desperate clamour for materialistic social ego must first be turned to a calm and understanding respect for the simplicities of life. If you have running water and a phone, you’re one of the top 2% rich in the world. To the properly poor, you’re not noticeably different to Murdoch or Packer. Let’s save our priceless landscapes, our terrific little towns and let’s apply our minds to fantastically refined urban developments that sit like jewels in the perpetually modern nature which is as simple as Bruny Island, as what Sullivans Cove was 200 years ago and as a backyard in St Marys. Let’s value these things ahead of money. Let’s understand how the aboriginal people of this land, our Aborigines, see us and how they see the land. What was Cochise fighting for and what is so noble about King Billy? No need for us to die for it, just plan for it and have special provisions for those who will abuse the plan, like terrorists or rampant capitalists. And then stand in defense, prepared to hone the remnant toward the only scope that will keep it properly healthy for our descendants. There’s a lot more to it than the forest.
http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/LBUN-6542MW?open#planningsystem
. And please let’s refer to this place and its lifestyle as an island(s) far more so than a state. It’s incremental cultural growth that shapes our politics far more so than politics shaping our lifestyle.
M. John Latham is an architect:
RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? Wednesday, November 3, 2004 |