Life imitates art

My novel - Vanishing act - prophesises the arrival of a bill to protect the Maui Dolphin.

Today the New Zealand government announced measures to close down fisheries along the west coast of New Zealand. The cost of the move is likely to be 80 million dollars, not counting the effects on families who depend on fishing for their livlihood.

It is a paradox for the Labour government that their decision has such a profound effect on their key constituents.

I also think that it is paradoxical that we have become conditioned to have an exaggerated concern for species facing extinction when extinction is simply a part of life on Earth. It is inevitable that humans will become extinct - we won't be around to observe it, but there is no doubt on the matter. The human collective ego sees itself as central to everything on the planet, but I am not so sure. Don't know what cockroaches chat about but I reckon they have a better chance than us in surviving - their track record is impressive.

Buy my book Vanishing Act. Very timely.

Find out who shot Willy Ihimati.
Who is Lorna McBride (and why is she called McBride of Frankenstein)
Which MP becomes an eco-warrior?
Will Maui Dolphin Survive?

Comments

Go figure

Took my daughter shopping tonight. We had dinner out. Got back home late. She laid her new clothes out in neat rows so she could choose what to wear for tomorrow. She's 5. I see her just every second weekend. How can such incredible errors of judgement (marrying my daughter's mother) result in such a wonderful little human being? Go figure

Why billboards must go.

The problem with billboards and advertising in public places is they are an invasion of privacy. Unlike magazine, tv, radio (etc) advertising you cannot choose to turn it off or avoid it. Nor does it offer anything in return. It is a medium that offers no benefit or advantage to the person it is inflicted on. At least television ads subsidise the programming. Without doubt some billboards are entertaining - I thought the anti GE poster for short lived MADGE activist group was particularly good. But most are rubbish. Literally. Badly executed. Nothing important to say. The debate has led to a great deal of hysteria - mostly from people with a vested interest in perpetuating the deployment of hoardings. Perhaps the idea that the issue at stake is 'property rights' is the creepiest. If you own a building you have every right to plaster anything you like on its external surfaces. Is that an antisocial point of view? I think so. In the UK you could have an ASBO slapped on you for si...

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St...

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