Not In My Beach Backyard

When I was on the Breaker Bay committee I was fascinated by those that had lived for a long time in the area, many having been brought up there from children. They were rightly proud of the community they belonged to, had a deep desire to look after the environment, and were highly critical of "experts coming in and telling us how to do things in our own backyard".

As Breaker Bay was mostly elderly white people I found that last part ironic and another example of how deep and blind Kiwis can be to the history of the country.

It is also exhibits an unwarranted confidence in their own ability to deal with a world that is changing at an exponential rate. Without people that have worked hard at understanding the unwarranted changes we are going to be lost. These people, these experts, will have the ways forward.

These experts will also have to work WITH the locals. Those that live in a place do indeed know the intricacies of their area, the weird ways the environment has reacted in the past, and how things have been attempted before.

The locals though have got to understand that the past is quickly losing its power of prediction as we are living on a planet that is doing things it's never done before.

Inspiration for these thoughts from: Stuff - Nine years ago, Kāpiti Coast residents drew a line in the sand. Now the council is trying again to draw hazard lines of its own

btw: my comments on residents of Breaker Bay certainly do not reflect the majority of those I met and knew, but do of a vocal minority.