The Hugh Green Group Parade marks the start of the Festival at 12pm, Saturday 13th March, down Queen Street, closely followed by the prestigious Banquet held in The Great Room at the Langham Hotel, Saturday night. The carnival enlightens us on Sunday, and of course St Patrick’s Day Wednesday 17th March. Get amongst it and help turn Auckland GREEN this weekend!

See www.stpatrick.co.nz for more comprehensive details of the St Patrick’s Festival events.
Aucklanders looking to celebrate Ireland’s National Day will find more than activities and attractions, to be sure, to be sure …

I invite all Happyzine readers and viewers to share their plans for Earth Hour with our community.  Check out this Earth Hour video – it’s mega inspiring.

Charlotte Squire

The giant statues will be among a host of “world famous in New Zealand” landmarks plunging into darkness for Earth Hour 2010. Due to the international dateline, the Kiwi symbols will be the first of many iconic landmarks around the world to switch off their lights, as hundreds of millions of people across every continent commit to resolve the issue of global warming.

Earth Hour takes place at 8.30pm on Saturday, March 27 local time, and will be celebrated as some of the world’s most recognised symbols of hope, peace, human endeavour and natural wonder plunge into darkness for Earth Hour as a powerful sign of the unrelenting resolve of the global community to respond to the threat of climate change.

The Kiwi icons will join CN Tower in Toronto, Table Mountain in Cape Town, Grand Palace in Bangkok and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in going dark for Earth Hour. US landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Mount Rushmore and even the lights of Las Vegas will also switch off.

New Zealand landmarks that will be switching off include:

Auckland: Sky Tower, Chelsea Sugar Factory, Vector Arena, National Bank, PWC and Sentinel Towers

Hawkes Bay: Opera House

New Plymouth: Wind Wand, Clock Tower

Palmerston North: Clock Tower

Wellington: The Beehive, Parliament Buildings, Railway Station, Majestic Centre and Civic Square

Nelson: Clock Tower

Dunedin: Octagon and Railway Station

As Earth Hour has grown from a one-city initiative in 2007 to a global phenomenon in 2009, renowned icons, including the Great Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, Christ the Redeemer statue, Buckingham Palace, Beijing’s Olympic Stadium and many more world-famous landmarks have joined the global community in showing leadership on a resolution to climate change.

WWF’s Executive Director Chris Howe said: “WWF is calling on other Kiwi landmarks large or small to also show their support by switching off for Earth Hour. We may not have the world’s tallest building or world famous historical attractions but we do have a strong national identity which includes a passion for protecting our unique country for future generations to enjoy. Participating in Earth Hour is a fun way to show the world that New Zealanders are leading the global movement to tackle climate change. Small actions repeated by many add up to a big difference.”

The recently released Earth Hour 2010 video

Click here to view the embedded video.

which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/earthhour2009, provides a powerful and inspiring montage of the world’s most recognised landmarks contributing to the greatest display of civil action the world has ever witnessed.

Check out our new google map to find out more about local Earth Hour events in your area at www.wwf.org.nz/earth_hour/events

Earth Hour 2010 is set to be a landmark moment on global warming, showing the world what can be done.

According to Wikipedia 1,800 million people in the world speak English.  That’s roughly 1/7 of the all the people on earth. So, really what’s the point? Well, languages are an extension of communication, which allows us to share thoughts, feelings and ideas. By taking the time to learn another language you also discover nuances of their culture and identity which you might not discover otherwise.

As I’ve learned though, I am not unilingual. I can, in fact, speak several languages. They just all happen to be different dialects of English!  I’ve got a Kiwi partner; had a South African boss; now a Scottish boss; have travelled all over Australia; was born in Canada; grew up on American TV and have spent much of the past four years living in England. Each of these countries adheres to its own language, branding them all English. Those from England believe they have the upper hand as they have ownership on the roots of the language, but I’m fairly certain not everyone would agree.

Where possible I try to retrieve the appropriate word from my vocabulary to suit my audience.  So if my dad calls from Canada, or I’m in a meeting full of British people or I’m out with my New Zealand boy, I strive to cater to their preferred vernacular. I’ve conformed on many of my word choices, so I’ll regularly say loo, crisps, aubergine, tip and subway instead of bathroom, chips, eggplant, mess and underpass. But there are some words that I just can’t conform to like trousers and biscuits. Trousers are pressed pants or dress pants, they’re not an all encompassing term for the piece of clothing that covers the lower half of the body. Those would be pants. And biscuits are a savoury bread roll typically served with gravy – not a sweet cookie. Again, all a matter of personal choice. You say to-may-toe, I say to-mah-tah, and all that.

English is a funny language and often rude words in one country might be perfectly acceptable in others – care must be taken. The story was told of a young Englishman who went to work at a stockbrokers in New York for the summer. On his first day there he was initiated into the sink or swim model of survival at the job. Here’s a load of work; it all needs to be done yesterday – you figure it out! And so in his desire to make a good impression he was writing away furiously in pencil, so that just in case, corrections could be made. Now as is usually the case, if something can go wrong, it will and it did. The young man made a mistake and needed to correct it, so he turned to the guy beside him and asked for a rubber. A bit of a laugh and a no, I don’t usually bring rubbers to work and the guy turned away. The pressure was mounting. So the young man tried again, went up to another desk, again, asking for a rubber. To which he got a similar reply, nope, no rubber. The young man, in his haste, thought to maximise his chances of finding a rubber by shouting across the office: “Does anyone have a rubber?”. This created, as expected, by all but the young man, a great deal of laughter and mirth.

You see, in New York a rubber is a condom, not the eraser the young man needed to correct his pencil markings!

Even with the move to New Zealand I find myself grimacing every time I hear the word ‘bogan’. It’s been explained to me time and again that the term denotes the same meaning as a ’skid’ in Canada or a ‘chav’ in the UK, however, the term bogan in Canada is commonly used as a derogatory racial slur against the Native peoples of our country. Other less controversial Kiwi words that I needed a translation for the first time I heard them: bit of a dag, brickie, wop-wops, tomato sauce, ta, smoko, petrol, lolly, squiz, lorry, buggered, brickie… I could go on but I expect you’ve got the point!

Learning how and why we use the words we do and how this might change as we travel across the ocean, or around the world, gives us the opportunity to think about where we came from and how time and distance has altered a once common language. Language is very much a part of our cultural identity. It’s what brings us together as former members of the British Empire and helps us stand apart on our own. As a game and a little something fun I’ve compiled a list of words that you may or may not know, touching on social varieties of the English language. And next time you meet a fellow English speaker you can elevate your communications by sharing with them a piece of their home country!

1. bunnychow
a. rabbit food
b. curry
c. lettuce

Country of origin:
2. chum
a. to accompany
b. a boyfriend
c. fish guts

Country of origin:
3. zamboni
a. a pizza folded in half
b. a fictional character
c. ice resurfacer

Country of origin:
4. toilet
a. bathroom
b. washroom
c. washing closet

Country of origin:
5. soda
a. pop
b. fizzy
c. a character in The Outsiders

Country of origin:

Answers:

1. Bunnychow is a South African term for curry, regionally specific to Durban.

2. The first trick question in the bunch as all a, b and c are correct. Chum is to accompany in Edinburgh English, Chum is a boyfriend in Quebecquois English and chum is fish guts most anywhere.

3. A zamboni is an ice resurfacer, mostly seen cleaning the ice between periods at hockey games. I would say it’s a Canadian term, however, the terms comes from the American inventor who designed the machine, so it’s more appropriately a North American term.

4. Toilet is very British. It took me the better part of a year to get comfortable with saying toilet – to me it’s far too vulgar and descriptive a term. I, and most Canadians, would prefer washroom or bathroom. Americans might call it a restroom. Kiwis, so I’m told, aren’t fussed.

5. Another trick question, as again a,b and c are all appropriate. The thing to note here is that soda is an American term. Canadians will say pop. The middle brother in the Outsiders was actually Sodapop. Fizzy seems to be pretty universal outside of North America.

My name is Emily Harris. I’m 25 years old and at the end of last year I finished a legal internship. The natural next step for me was to get a job with a law firm and go into practice. As I contemplated that I realised that immersing myself in the corporate world wouldn’t help me to pursue my dream of making a real contribution to my community and our environment. So I decided instead to strike out on my own. I’ve started by writing a blog on sustainable living and connecting with groups of others who share my passion, but I want to contribute more directly to lessening our impact on the environment. I want to find ways to make environmental responsibility resonate with the whole community in a genuine way. I want to take people beyond paying lip service to environmental responsibility by getting them actively involved in sustainable practices – not because they feel like they should but because they want to.

My vision…
Is for the rooftops of the apartment buildings in Auckland’s CBD to turn green. I want to establish rooftop gardens for city-dwellers, so that they can grow their own fresh, healthy food, right on the roof of their apartment building. I want to teach them the skills of growing their own food, and provide them with the resources they need to set up gardens. As someone who lives in a central Auckland apartment, I know how much value people like me would get from having access to green spaces where we could grow our own food.

This will have a huge positive impact on New Zealand’s environment because…
Growing food locally will give people better access to nutritious organic food, transform wasted spaces into green productive spaces, and reduce carbon emissions from food transportation. There are also flow-on environmental benefits, for example a reduction in how much waste garden participants throw away because they begin to view food scraps as valuable material for composting for the garden, not just rubbish. Additionally, showing people how they can take ownership of one aspect of their relationship with the environment will encourage them to take responsibility for other aspects of their relationship with the environment.

Working together on a project like a shared garden will generate community spirit, something that is often lacking among inner-city apartment-dwellers. Community spirit leads to a greater sense of social responsibility as we see, in a practical way, how together we can create great results. Social responsibility leads to an enhanced sense of environmental responsibility, as we see how everything we do has an effect on each other and so feel more motivated to protect the resources we share.

It’s not just about creating a few gardens on a few rooftops. The people living in apartment buildings in Auckland’s CBD today won’t live there forever. They’ll move out to the suburbs, to different cities, and they’ll start families. But they’ll take their gardening skills and sense of social and environmental responsibility with them. And they can share that knowledge and passion in their new communities, and pass it on to their children.

If Happyzine helps me to achieve my vision publicly, then other New Zealanders will see what can be achieved when people come together to work towards a common goal. They’ll see how much fun it is to be involved in a community project like this one. Some of them will be inspired to do the same thing in their community, and local food growing will spread like ripples in a pond.

How I will make this happen…
My vision is too big for me to achieve on my own. I’m not an expert at gardening, but I’m part of a group of people called Ooooby, who are passionate about creating access to fresh, locally produced food for all New Zealanders. So I’m confident I can get some gardening gurus on board to share their knowledge and experience.

There are lots of examples of successful community gardening in New Zealand, and big cities overseas have successfully transferred the community garden concept to the rooftops, as the images in my video show. Rooftop gardens can be tailored to the available space, structural support, weather exposure and facilities of a building, and also to the time commitment that participants can make. Removable planter boxes can be used so no permanent alterations to the building are needed.

With Happyzine’s help I’ll generate publicity for my vision, and connect with city-dwellers who would like to grow their own food, but have been held back by barriers like lack of suitable space and lack of gardening knowledge. Once those barriers are removed, and the benefits of communal gardening like saving money and forming connections with neighbours become tangible, others in the buildings will be keen to get involved. As for getting building owners on board, there is anecdotal evidence that rooftop gardens can increase the value of buildings by making them a more desirable place for people to live. An objective of the project would be to get garden participants to take ownership of their garden, including keeping it tidy and maintained, so that it would contribute to, rather than detract from, the aesthetic of the building.

Having the backing of Happyzine and the other businesses that are behind Dream to Reality will assist me in obtaining financial support to bring my vision into reality.

This project could bring healthy sustainable living to a large number of New Zealanders who have not really had the opportunity to grow their own food before. I have the passion and the drive to pursue this goal, and with Happyzine’s support I’m confident I can achieve it.

Ed.

Hi there Happyzine readers,

My name is Levity Beet. I write and perform music for children of all ages. One of my songs ‘The wheels on the bus they don’t go round’ has just made it to the finals of the ISC (International Songwriting Competition).  As well as being judged by Weird Al Yankovic, Tom Waits, Neil Finn and others the competition has a Peoples Choice section. If you’d like to help give NZ children’s music a boost (and do me a great favour!) you can vote up to once a day per email address throughout March.
You can vote by…
1. Going here…
http://www.sonicbids.com/voting/Default.aspx?p=336
2. Enter your email address and submit
3 Then go to your email inbox, open the mail from Sonic Bids and click on the link in there
4.That will take you to a page with all the finalists from all sections, scroll down alphabetically to ‘The wheels on the bus they don’t go round’ – tick box and submit.

You can listen to ‘The Wheels…’ from there too.

To listen to more of my music go here…
http://www.myspace.com/levitybeet
Or see a video of my Apra NZ 2009 Children’s Song of the Year here…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cheers
Levity Beet

On Find your Joy, Pat Armitstead offers an integrated approach to managing depression, grief and loss through a mix of commentary, inspiration, interviews, music and meditation. Her work and her joy is found in supporting people to lead a happy, engaged and meaningful life. Pat demonstrates how to incorporate humour, joy and compassion into business and life and is supported by a team of co-hosts and technical crew to achieve that.  She says our only way forward is in collaboration.

A registered nurse for 16 years, Pat has also spent eleven years in advertising and eight years as a professional speaker. She is an artist and humanitarian documentary maker who uses performing arts in her workshops and presentations to foster productivity and shift emotional states. Pat is a trustee of the NZ Centre for Compassion in Healthcare, Member NZ Positive Psychology Association and Member International Humour Foundation.  Pat is always interested to hear from listeners and recieve contributions to the program.  She also has a guest each week and is keen to hear from  people interested to make a contribution.

They say every journey starts with the first step.  But for 15 year old Aescleah Hawkins, the first steps of her journey yesterday – a 42 km walk for Hector’s dolphins – also began with a memorable send off from 265 cheering school students, well wishers from the local community, Christchurch’s Mayor Bob Parker, and even a dancing supporter wearing a dolphin costume.

Christchurch’s Heathcote Valley School hosted the event as Aescleah and a team of 12 started their three-day walk from Lyttleton to Akaroa this morning, to raise funds and awareness for WWF’s campaign to protect Hector’s dolphins.

The children presented the walkers with nearly $300 raised through a mufti day, reading out dolphin poems, waving them off on their journey with cut outs of dolphins and holding up a sign they had painted.

“Looking after what we have is really important,” said Greg Lewis, Principal of Heathcote Valley School, speaking at the launch event this morning. “Community is about people and it’s about our environment too.  Hector’s dolphins are part of our community and it’s up to us to look after them,”

True locals, Hector’s dolphins live only in New Zealand, and are often seen in Lyttleton Harbour and around Banks Peninsula.  But due to human actions, they are now amongst the rarest marine dolphins in the world. When Aescleah discovered that a species so close to home was at risk of extinction, she immediately wanted to help, and so contacted WWF with the idea of doing the walk for Hector’s through the dolphins’ habitat:

“I’m really looking forward to the walk and the support from everyone has been amazing,” she said at today’s launch event. “I hope that from this more people see that we can make a difference, and we have to do something now, because Hector’s dolphins really need our help to survive.”

As today’s celebratory send off showed, what began as one girl’s decision to make a personal stand to protect Hector’s dolphins, has drawn the support of the local community, who have been quick to embrace the cause.

Mayor Bob Parker, a former student of Heathcote Valley School, said: “Anything we can do to raise awareness about the plight of the Hector’s dolphin is fantastic.  Good on Aescleah, it’s wonderful to see someone so passionate about this cause, and making a strong stand.  It shows individuals can make a difference.”

Since Mayor Bob Parker’s days at Heathcote Valley School, much has changed for Hector’s dolphins – their numbers have plummeted from around 29,000 to an estimated 7000 today. WWF ranks their rapid decline a ‘national conservation emergency’ and has campaigned for over 10 years for the species to be protected. Through the Walk for Hector’s, Aescleah hopes more people will become aware of the dolphins’ plight and more will be done to help protect these rare and special animals.

“I am personally blown away by the amazing commitment from Aescleah and her team of walkers to the cause, and by the stunning community support for protecting Hector’s dolphins,” said WWF’s Executive Director, Chris Howe. “Our thanks go out to everyone involved in the walk for Hector’s, from the students of Heathcote Valley School to walkers themselves and everyone who has donated to the cause. The level of support shows New Zealand communities are passionate about Hector’s dolphins, they want them protected, and they’re getting out there and doing something about it. We wish them well for their walk.”

You can donate to the walk for Hector’s at www.givealittle.co.nz/hectors.

All funds raised by the Walk for Hector’s go to WWF’s campaign to protect Hector’s dolphins.

For more information about Walk for Hector’s events, go to wwf.org.nz/hectors

To make a donation to Aescleah and her team’s Walk for Hector’s go to: www.givealittle.co.nz/hectors

Here are some of the benefits of moving slowly:

* You can become aware of how you move. Smoothly or in jerks? Limp or stiff? Angry or peaceful?
* You can make changes to your habitual movements.
* You can learn to move a new way.
* You can experiment with movement because you have time to.
* You can enjoy moving with awareness.
* You can relax the mind.
* You can rest the mind by focusing on the movements, getting you out of your head and into your body.
* You can take time out and not push yourself so hard.
* You can even enjoy the breeze and the natural environment.

How slowly should you move when practicing Tai Chi?  Well, you can move as slowly as you like, but there’s one proviso — keep your movements natural.  If you move too slowly you may use more effort than required. When we move, our body movements have a natural momentum. Tai Chi is all about keeping movements natural, so don’t move too slowly — leave that for Butoh1 performance.

As well as moving slowly, do you ever move quickly in Tai Chi practice? We often move slowly when the mind is teaching the body a new trick. It’s fine to move slowly in Tai chi and it’s also fine to move quickly — yin and yang go together, we needn’t get locked into a single speed. But in the beginning slow practice has many benefits like those mentioned above.

In my own practice I sometimes do the movements at a ‘walking’ pace, then sometimes I stop and hold a posture; and at other times I just let the movements flow like a long river.

1 Butoh is a contemporary avant-garde dance form from Japan combining dance, theatre, improvisation and influences of Japanese traditional performing arts.