About

This blog is all about ‘pragmatic activism’  –  the idea that you can make changes, step by step, to make the world a better place.  It’s not revolution by any stretch of the imagination – but I think it’s a personal philosophy many of us can live with.

Apparently one of the measures of intelligence is the ability to hold conflicting ideas and views.  Being an old school activist is so appealing – everything’s black or white.  I love (some of) the work by NGOs because they raise awareness but I suspect some of the individuals involved are intellectually lazy.  Turning everything into a single issue or a right vs wrong just isn’t real.

So, I’m going to enjoy musing on these sorts of things on my blog and also use it to share with friends the journey my partner and I are taking … building a home on a piece of land north of Auckland, New Zealand.

Would love to announce it will be state-of-the-art sustainable, but let’s face it living in the country and commuting to work is not very eco-friendly to begin with (hats off to the urbanites who cycle and use public transport). Not sure even the very best eco-building can compensate for the commuting.  But, our dream is to live out of town so our challenge will now be to find as many ways as we can to tread lightly on the planet and all that good stuff.