⚪️🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣⚫️ NEW DIRECTION  Ed. No. 49 - A HAPPY SUSTAINABLE NEW YEAR

CELEBRATE LIFE SUSTAINABLY

Title: "A New Kid on the Block"©️(1992) [Detail] / Artist: Neville Williams

To see more of this Artist's work go to NevilleWilliamsArt

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A CHOICE: 

THE TRAIN TO NOWHERE OR 

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE IN 2025 

Recently a friend most genuinely and kindly asked me “How can I help you?” 

He was referring to the difficult times I am passing through with my Mother who is succumbing to the decline of old age and its related issues.

My response was quick and direct. “The best help you can be to me is to take care of your own well being”. It is not lost on me that most people are going through difficulties and for some quite major issues presently. It is a cleansing and clearing time in no uncertain terms. If you are taking responsibility for what you are actually responsible for then you will be helping others around you.

We live in a time where too many are too concerned in other peoples business when the focus should be on keeping our own selves in a good space physically, mentally and spiritually. We need to MYOB - Mind Your Own Business. If we all did that it would be a far happier and sustainable world. And this is essentially what the battle is going on in our lives presently. Too many want to blame somebody else for what they cannot or will not deal with in their own lives.

And no matter what you say to the blamers it will always be somebody else that is causing the problems. If I hear another person blame any level of Government for the pain they are suffering I’ll scream. That is such an immature response. I mean who put the pollies there?

Let’s use the rail employees postponed stoppage threatening the Harbour fireworks display on New Years Eve as an example.

If we were living in a more sustainable balanced world the missing out of fireworks wouldn’t even matter. Parents would be telling their kids they loved them and they’d watch it on television or do something else. Those who use the fireworks on the Harbour as an excuse to get blind drunk might take the drowning of their sorrows in booze or drugs or whatever else they are pumping into their disrespected lives to the privacy of their own homes. …and not spewing their guts (i.e. unhappiness and violence) out over others. If you have a problem in this regard it is your job to deal with it. Seek help.  

It is acknowledged that accepting this as an owned problem in the first place is the most difficult step.

In a more sustainable world The City of Sydney would be cutting the fireworks back to once every two years and contributing the funds in alternating years to worthy causes. This is something like what Lord Mayor Clover Moore tried to do in the infancy of her 6 term tenure as Sydney Mayor (Gee she must be doing something right!) by reducing City Christmas Decorations only to be hounded down by populist media. 

Why do the fireworks anyway need to be “bigger and better” each year?

Has Sydney got an inferiority complex that needs feeding? It appears so.

In a more balanced world Profiteers who benefit in no small way on New Year’s earnings would be clipping their profit margins. But this is just anathema for too many weaned on a mantra of more is never enough. Less can be more in the long run if you are working yourself to death. What’s the good of having more if you are dead?

What rail employees did recently threatening the success of the fireworks was to hold the public to ransom bringing high profile attention to their greedy cause. Rail workers wouldn’t have attempted this in a more sustainable world.  This smacks of selfishness to claim far far more than the value of what they are doing for a job. I read that a train driver already earns around $120,000 a year. They want a 32% pay rise over three years. The State Government is offering them a realistic 11%.

I mean talk about uncivil behaviour.

Finally if we had Governments who were prepared to look at the big picture and plan into the future we wouldn’t have all this bloody mindedness, uncertainty and disrespect. Just put yourself in the position of a train driver who sees the most recently opened excellent driverless Metro Rail Line. They’re not going to have a job a few years down the track. They know this. We are hearing their discontent about their future with all of these claims. 

But to be fair to Governments of all persuasions my experience is that we the public are simply not prepared to get on board 'the train of discipline’ towards any decently planned and proposed vision. We don’t want to listen. Politicians know this. We humans have programmed ourselves to consume and consume and consume. It’s a pig out that nature will sort out for us if we do not.

When the pain starts to knock on our front door as it is beginning to we will start not only listening we will accept the change to sustainable living practices.

HERE’S A TIP: When you are ready to listen then listen to those who know. 

Not those who “think” they know. The blind leading the blind is only setting ourselves up for a train ride to nowhere.

Happy New Year. - Neville ☺︎

THIS COMMENTARY WAS SENT TO THE OPINION EDITOR 

OF THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD ON 29 DECEMBER 2024

THIS OPINION PIECE WAS ALSO PROVIDED TO "HAVE YOUR SAY'

AT THE CITY OF SYDNEY & LINKEDIN.

FOOTNOTE:

We are all responsible for keeping the balance in our world. 

What is your vision for YOO?

👋 Celebrate yoo!

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