Rather late notice I know, sorry, and it will be back in the ReelEarth film festival in a couple of months. . . .

Movie: One Man, One Cow, One Planet
Where: Waikato Migrant Resource Centre
When: Friday 1 August, 7pm (56 mins playing time)

This is a film about a farming revolution in India. Since 1993, 150,000 Indian small farmers have been driven to suicide as corporate dominance and elite globalisation tightens its hold on their means for independent livelihood. This film takes us into the heart of the world's most important renaissance - something that few of us are aware is even happening. Hoes rather than swords are at the frontline of a battle for agricultural control that is being fought over Indian soil. Its outcome could well determine the future of the entire earth. Using biodynamic-organic methods, farmers of India are reclaiming their lands and livelihood. At the same time they're exposing the corporate mantra of infinite growth in a finite world for the environmental and human disaster that it really is.

This is a New Zealand made movie with a number of awards to its name:
Best non-broadcast film - Jackson Hold Wildlife Film Festival 2007
Katherine Knight Award EarthVision International Environmental Film Festival 2008;
Official Selection at Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival 2008, Greendance Film Festival 2008, South Asian International Film Festival 2007, Thin Line Film Festival 2007.

We will provide a light supper and a chance to discuss some of the issues raised in the movie afterwards, if you want to stay.  Please call 853 2192 to reserve a seat

Free IT Computer workshop for Community Groups.

A free informative course for people wanting to know more about computers, back ups, anti virus, fire walls, the internet, file management, RAM, passwords, emailing and trouble shooting.

13th August      3-6.30pm
Hamilton

Nibbles and drinks provided

15 places available. Bookings essential.

Contact Sally Ridley sally@communitywaikato.org.nz

2008 New Zealand International Film Festivals taking place in 16 cities across New Zealand. The festival runs in Hamilton between August 14th and 31st at Rialto Cinemas

We have some fantastic films this year, with a particularly strong field of films about sustainable living, eco-communities and environmental issues. The films are:

Films about Sustainable Building, Eco-Communities and the Environment

Garbage Warrior

Sunday 31 August, 11.30 am

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

Friday 29 August, 11.30 am

Sunday 31 August, 3.45 pm

Sharkwater

Saturday 23 August, 1.45 pm

Sunday 24 August, 1.45 pm

Up the Yangtze

Wednesday 20 August, 6.15 pm

Thursday 21 August, 11.30 am

Other films of interest:

Let's Say...

Tuesday 26 August, 6.15 pm

The Wave

Sunday 24 August, 8.00 pm
Monday 25 August, 8.15 pm

The Hollow Men

Friday 22 August, 6.00 pm
Saturday 23 August, 1.00 pm

Trouble Is My Business 

Sunday 17 August, 3.45 pm

Frozen River

Friday 22 August, 1.30 pm
Saturday 23 August, 3.45 pm

It's a Free World...

Saturday 30 August, 6.00 pm

The Visitor

Sunday 31 August, 5.45 pm

All films are screening in Rialto Cinemas.

Further information about each film is provided below, and detailed overviews and some trailers can also be found on our website ( www.nzff.co.nz - once on the homepage, select your region to browse films on at the Festival in your home town).

Brief Overview of each film

1. Garbage Warrior

A film about environmentally sustainable housing, and community-owned projects. Building out of materials like beer cans, car tires and plastic water bottles as well as rammed earth, architect Michael Reynolds' houses rely upon only the earth's natural resources to heat, cool, water and power them. The film also shows Reynolds and his team's work in building new housing and reconstruction projects in tsunami and earthquake struck parts of South Asia and Mexico.

2. Pete Seeger; The Power Of Song

This rousing, affectionate biographical portrait of singer/activist Pete Seeger, now in his late 80s, is also an overview of 20th-century American folk music as a form of protest for civil rights and environmental movements across the US. In the 60s Seeger turned "We Shall Overcome" into the anthem of the civil rights movement. He was kept off American television for 17 years on account of his left-leaning views, but never lost his audience.

3. Sharkwater

Underwater videographer, eco-warrior and hunk, Rob Stewart is passionate about sharks. Years in the making, his spectacular film puts us within snorkels' length of the ocean's unjustly demonised predators, then plumbs the depths of the multi billion-dollar shark-fin trade to show how over-harvesting sharks destroys the food chain and puts the world's ecosystems at risk. "This beautiful and urgent eco-doc takes a bite out of the shark mythology made indelible by Jaws. Sharkwater argues that these ancient creatures are as friendly as dolphins, and relatively safe."

4. Up the Yangtze

This documentary observes life on the soon-to-be-flooded banks of the Yangtze from aboard a cruise ship taking English-speaking tourists up the river. We meet a handful of the people whose lives are being the most deeply affected, and we become especially well-acquainted with two of the ship's young restaurant workers: a woman from a dirt-poor family whose shack close to the river will very soon be drowned, and the brash son of a middle-class family. Their very different responses to westernisation are subtly shaded and speak volumes about the price of China's headlong rush into the future.

Social Interest films

5. Let's Say

What do kids think their parents do at work? This film asks kids from different areas of France and different ethnic backgrounds to act out their parents' work days. First asked to rank various professions in order of importance, the children are then invited individually to describe their parents' jobs. These include farmers, doctors, policemen and circus performers. Finally, provided with simple costumes and sets, they create skits based on those occupations. Some of the views expressed are whimsical, others show surprising sophistication. The farmers' children, for example, would be much more competent at delivering a calf than 90% of their elders.

6. The Wave

A high school teacher's unusual experiment to show his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when the movement takes on a life of its own. Within a few days, what began with harmless notions like discipline and community builds into a real movement: THE WAVE. When the students start ostracizing and threatening others the teacher decides to stop the experiment. But it's too late. THE WAVE is out of control...

7. The Hollow Men

The "stolen" insider emails that informed Nicky Hager's best-selling account of National's 2004 election campaign return in Alister Barry's (Someone Else's Country) new film - just in time to caution us against campaigning politicians in 2008. Whatever your political leanings, this makes for essential viewing.

8. Frozen River

First-time director Courtney Hunt took the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at this year's Sundance Festival for her nerve-wracking thriller. The finely etched anti-heroines are two matter-of-fact, desperate women who traffic illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River into the US. One woman's white, the other Native American and they have more in common than their ingrained mutual distrust will allow them to admit. The precariousness of their hard lives, bringing up young families without support, is sharply observed and compellingly played out in the mounting danger of their nightly excursions over thawing ice.

9. Trouble is My Business

Assistant Principal Mr Peach of Aorere College battles to keep his students in school and out of trouble. Aorere College is situated in the heart of Mangere. The school struggles to cope with widespread social issues inherent in the local community and has a history of street gangs within the school, high levels of truancy and low academic achievement. In an environment where the morale of both the students and teachers is at an all time low, Mr Peach single-handedly persists in his belief in the kids and their right to an education. He fights to keep them in school through a mixture of tough discipline, street knowledge, negotiation, support and encouragement - whatever it takes. As a life-long inhabitant of the area, Mr Peach has a profound empathy for the kids and an understanding of the complexity of their problems. Armed with this insight and convinced that his students have potential, Mr Peach adopts unconventional methods to reach out to the students and their families.

10. It's a Free World

Veteran masters of social realism Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty (My Name Is Joe, The Wind that Shakes the Barley) return with one of their most involving character-centred dramas. Angie is a feisty East Ender, a solo mum who loses her job in a recruitment agency and sets up an agency of her own, placing semi-legal immigrants. A sexy blonde dynamo on a motorbike, she strikes deals and dishes out jobs to Polish, Ukrainian and Chilean workers for construction sites and clothing factories.The deeper she gets into this dodgy business, the more she is determined to prove her mettle, defying her old unionist dad, her nervous business partner, and her own generous nature. Loach and Laverty dramatise the human price of free market enterprise with every risk she takes and every choice she makes.

11. The Visitor

A shy, disillusioned Economics professor returns to his New York apartment to find it occupied by a couple of illegal immigrants. Convivial Tarek is a talented drummer who encourages Walter out of his protective shell, while his girlfriend Zainab carries the burden of their perilous citizenship status. Each learns something new, but just when you have this film pinned, it takes off in an unexpectedly dramatic and moving direction.

WRITE TO THE MINISTER
PLEASE HELP  TO GET RID OF THE HIGHLY TOXIC INSECTICIDE ENDOSULFAN, WHICH HAS BEEN BANNED IN 55 COUNTRIES.
ERMA is currently reassessing New Zealand's use of the highly toxic and persistent insecticide endosulfan - and incredibly, they are proposing to allow its continued use on our fruit and vegetables and on sports fields, bowling greens, parks and airports.

Endosulfan is one of the worst pesticides still used in New Zealand, in terms of its toxicity, chronic effects and environmental pollution. It is an old-style organochlorine related to DDT, which is why 55 countries have already banned it. We urge you to take a moment and write/email the Minister for the Environment, Trevor Mallard, asking him to overturn ERMA's proposed decision and ban this controversial insecticide.
The Minister has the powers to do this under section 68 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act which allow him to "call in the application" if the decision will have significant economic, environmental, international or health effects. ERMA's decision will have all of those.

Points to make in your submission:

* Endosulfan has caused birth defects, epilepsy, congenital intellectual impairment, cancer and devastating chronic suffering in thousands of people who have been exposed to it directly or by spray drift or contaminated water.
* At very low levels of exposure it can cause human breast cancer cells to grow and so is a real risk for breast cancer.
* It is a risk factor for Parkinsons Disease.
* It is persistent and bioaccumulative and it contaminates air, rain, snow, water, soil, and biota, including tree bark around the world - including the Arctic, Antarctica and Mt Everest. ERMA has also acknowledged that it probably contaminates our mountains such as Mt Taranaki, Mt Ruapehu etc, as a result of our use of this insecticide.
* It contaminates marine mammals such as whales and seals and levels are increasing.
* Because 60-70% of endosulfan evaporates after use, any use of it here will contribute to global contamination.
* It is ubiquitous in the human food chain and in human bodies.
* It is passed across the placenta to the unborn infant and in breast milk to the newborn.

ERMA's decision has not considered any of these points even though the information was available to them, so they cannot be relied on to make the right decision for New Zealand.

New Zealand's continued use of endosulfan is also deeply embarrassing internationally:

* The European Union has nominated it for a global ban under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
* Korea has twice now rejected New Zealand beef because of illegal residues of endosulfan, and we stand to lose our valuable exports markets from such contamination.
* 55 other countries are managing their agriculture and sports fields without endosulfan - why can't New Zealand?
* It is not possible to continue marketing New Zealand as clean, green, natural and pure when we are one of the few remaining countries to continue using this dirty pesticide that keeps on turning up in our food with monotonous regularity - 50% of tomatoes in the last Total Diet Survey contained endosulfan. Since then the New Zealand Food Safety Authority has found endosulfan residues on lettuce, courgettes and strawberries.
* New Zealand's failure to take responsibility for contributing to global pollution undermines all our claims to be a clean, green, sustainable nation.

ERMA's reassessment can be found at http://www.ermanz.govt.nz/search/registers.html?id=23290

More information on endosulfan can be found here

Please write now to the Minister - this is URGENT.

and put in a submissions to ERMA -  closes on the 8th August

30th JULY - ERMA MEETING IN HAMILTON

Community and Environmental Group meeting - Discussion on the Environment

Plants and animals that are new to New Zealand, genetic modification, pesticides, explosives, and other hazardous chemicals - including cosmetics - all come under the umbrella of ERMA New Zealand, the agency responsible for the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.

If you are interested in any of these areas, ERMA New Zealand is hosting another Community & Environmental Group meeting in Hamilton, from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Wednesday 30 July, to hear the community's views, provide information, and discuss any issues around the regulation of hazardous substances and new organisms.

Anyone who wishes to attend the meeting is requested to contact Erin Maaskant at ERMA New Zealand for details of the venue.

Phone (04) 918 4826 or email erin.maaskant@ermanz.govt.nz

Lesley Meadows
Communications Manager
ERMA New Zealand
Tel +64 4 916 2426
DDI +64 4 918 4835
Mob +64 21 224 3304

A reminder about the Waikato NZAEE AGM this Thursday at 5.30 - 7pm at the Environment Centre in Ward St.

At 6pm we have an exciting guest speaker, Nelson Lebo, from the USA who has come to the Waikato to research for a PhD. He will be looking at how to use Permaculture ideas in secondary science education. Nelson is a teacher, organic farmer and environmental educator.

Everyone is welcome

After the speaker, we will hold a short AGM.

Hope to see you there.

Chris Eames
Dr Chris Eames
Centre for Science and Technology Education Research
University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, 3240, NZ
Ph (07) 8384357
Fax (07) 838 4272

Thursday 7th August - please note, Thursday, not Friday this month

Hosted by The Greenspace, 60 Te Aroha St
5.30pm.

As usual, gold coin donation, BYOG, and if possible take a new person with you.

Winter Lecture Series - details in last newsletter, time for each lecture is 7 - 9pm, at Performing Arts Centre.

Saturday 19 July Weeding at Jubilee Bush
tomorrow morning 9.30am, meet Boundary Road entrance. Enquiries to Katherine 021 267 2773.

Thursday 24 July 2008 NZAEE AGM

NZ Association for Environmental Education Waikato Branch is holding its Annual General Meeting in the Environment Centre, 25 Ward St, Hamilton. Anyone interested in EE is welcome to attend.  5.30pm - 6.00pm nibbles
6.00 Meeting.

Trash to Fashion
There is just one week to go until Trash to Fashion takes to the stage in an extravaganza of local talent. Not only is T2F '08 a competition open to anyone within the Waikato region, the Awards show is also a celebration of talent throughout our region by showcasing local musicians and dancers alongside the models for the first time ever. It also delivers important environmental messages to reduce our waste.
We have once again received a healthy number of entries with the quality of this years garments raising the bar once again.
In all, Trash to Fashion '08 is a show not to be missed. If you havn't got your ticket yet you can do so by visiting www.ticketdirect.co.nz.

Colour, beauty, design, creativity! See you there!

Cycle Action Petition
There are Government strategies and programmes to promote cycling and cycle safety, but we haven't seen many changes on the street yet.

The Cycling Advocates' Network (CAN) is running a campaign to get its 9-Point Plan for Cycle Safety adopted by the Government.

Sign the e-petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NZCycleSafety/

Visit http://www.can.org.nz for more information about the campaign.

Contact: CAN, 04-972 2552, campaigns@can.org.nz

In this newsletter:

Winter lecture series - Continuing Education, University of Waikato
Sustainable Urban Design series, HCC
Bot soc Trip
Forest and Bird Trip
Job vacancy - Maungatautari Ecological Is Trust

Winter lecture series
Waikato's free winter seminar series - Sustainable Waikato.
Tuesday nights at the WEL Energy Performing Arts centre,Gate 2B, Knighton Road.
We have brought together some of the University's pre-eminent academics who will share their knowledge and bring foresight to the defining issue of our generation.

Seminar 1 - 22 July
Environmental Armageddon

Professor Al Gillespie from the School of Law takes a ‘big picture' look at the impact of environmental concerns such as climate change and the food crisis over the next 40 years.

Seminar 2 - 29 July
Ko te tini me te mano o Waikato: Population Prospects in the Heartland

Professor Richard Bedford of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences considers the changes in the Waikato population in recent times, the predictions for the next 20 years, and what this will mean for the region.

Seminar 3 - 5 August
Land to Ocean: The Critical Role of Nutrients

Three leading academics from the Science and Engineering School discuss some of the central environmental issues facing Waikato and New Zealand. Professor David Hamilton looks at the vital connection of lake and rivers on the New Zealand landscape, Associate Professor Louis Schipper covers changing elements of sustainable land use: carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus and Senior lecturer Dr Karin Bryan discusses the fate of nutrients in our shallow estuaries and coastal seas.

Seminar 4 - 12 August
Sustainable Enterprise

Waikato Management School Professor Mike Pratt & Helga Pratt focus on making the world a better place through enterprise, looking at 10 pioneering companies that have been founded on sustainability principles.

Seminar 5 - 19 August
ICT and Sustainability

Dr Murray Pearson from the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences will discuss the potential uses for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the rural sector, as well as digital libraries and machine learning.

This seminar series is presented by the Centre for Continuing Education with sponsorship from the University of Waikato's Cultural Committee. The Cultural Committee's aim is to support arts, cultural and academic activities on campus by providing events which are open to the wider community.

Sustainable Urban Design 2008 Workshops

Whether you are looking to build or wanting to save money and live more comfortably, then there will be something for you.
Contact the Environment Centre to register for these workshops 839 4452 or email - see link below

August 9th - Retrofit Workshop

With Hamilton already having a large stock of houses, this workshop looked into incorporating sustainable building techniques and application into an existing home to make it a healthiet and warmer home, and cheaper to run.

September 13 - Water Efficiency Workshop
Water harvesting, conservation and giving grey and blackwater a second use on site.

October 11 - Solar, Wind and PV Energy Workshop
Energy conservation and generation.

November 8/9 - Eco-Home Design Workshop
For ready-to-build people wanting guidance and support in building of their very own eco-home. This workshop also has two preliminary evening workshops on 21 and 28 October.

Would you like to join the Sustainable Urban Design email list-serv? This is a group set up for people to share resources and information, and to learn off each other. If you are interested email Aaron (details below) and you can be invited to join.

For more information contact Aaron Fleming at Hamilton City Council phone 07 838 6483

Sunday 27 July:

Waikato Bot Soc Field Trip - Hauraki Remnants

A visit to remnants of the Hauraki Plains once magnificent kahikatea forest and what is left of the salt meadow on the banks of the Waihou River.
Frank Speedy Memorial Reserve- This kahikatea-Cordyline forest remnant south of Ngatea is an area gifted by the Speedy family that was part of the homestead reserve but is now a public road side rest area. It is an area that has been passed a million times but probably never really looked at, and includes some hybrids between two Melicytus species.

From here a 10 min. drive to the Kopu Bridge, and a short walk along the mangrove fringe of the Waihou River. Heading downstream beside the tidal edge, allows a chance to look at salt tolerant plants away from the tall fescue that dominates this area.
Meet: 9.30am Frank Speedy Memorial Reserve SH2, 2km south of Ngatea. Contact: Doug Ashby dj.ashby@xtra.co.nz ph 07 862 4706.

AUGUST 10 SUNDAY
Forest and Bird Trip: MORGAN RESERVE, MARATOTO MINE

Average
Meet at F&B's Morgan Reserve at 10.00 am. To find Morgan Reserve, turn left at the old Waikino Railway Station and travel along Waitekauri Rd 2.8 km to the sign posted Reserve. After a brief look at the Reserve the plan is to drive on up the valley to the site of the now closed Golden Cross gold mine. At the end of the road is a public car park. From here we will walk up to the head of the valley and look down into the Maratoto valley.
Bill Fairweather 07 825 0563

MAUNGATAUTARI ECOLOGICAL ISLAND TRUST

Position available - Environmental Education Coordinator
This position would suit a professional person who is able to coordinate and deliver an environmental education programme to schools and to the community.
You need to:

• Be passionate about conservation
• Have experience in planning and delivering an environmental programme relating to biodiversity/conservation
• Have knowledge and understanding of Maori perspective
• Be creative and innovative
• Be an effective communicator
• Be self-directed and actively participate with other members of groups involved
• Be well organized, set goals and work within time restraints
• Have the ability to relate to a diverse range of people
• Be competent with use of information technology
• Hold a current driver's license

This position is a short term contract but could be extended
Salary negotiable

If you are interested in applying for this position, please contact the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust for a copy of the Job Description or submit a brief C.V. to the Chief Executive, PO Box 476, Cambridge by Monday 28th July 2008.

Apologies, the Permaculture video evening that I put in yesterday's newsletter (on the 25th) is actually tonight - Wednesday 7pm, in the Environment Centre. (the heater will be on!)

It is called Gardening Australia - Permaculture, and is a good one to see at this time of the year to help you with planning your productive backyard garden.

Good water saving features, fabulous chicken house design and great use of vertical surfaces.

Everyone welcome