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Ecofreaks meet

"The AGM of Ecology Action was held on Tuesday, March 26, in the evening."

"So what?", you ask, "what the hell's this Ecology Action business. I've never heard of it."

"But the thing is, despite their not doing anything last year, they used to be a big noise in this environment business. They used to think they were active and that they used to do a lot of things to protect and defend the environment." "What did they do?"

"Well, you see, it used to do all these really good things to protect the environment like organising beach clean-ups and sending cans back to the brewery and so on.

"But what's a few cans and the odd beach? That's neither here nor there."

"Well, you've got to start somewhere—but its a good publicity gesture."

"Publicity for what, though? If that was all they ever did, is it any wonder that they crapped out?"

"Yeah, well that's actually what some of the members reckoned too. They did a whole lot of moaning about how last year the organisation had been splinterised before it started by dividing it up into a whole lot of irrelevant subgroups and so on. So this year they reckon they should be a bit more issue oriented. No more individualism—a bit of a movement towards mass action instead."

"But what issues have they chosen to get excited about."

"They reckon they should have a go at seeing if they can do something about urban transportation; and perhaps a bit about urban waste disposal. And apparently some joker wants to stand for the Wellington Harbour Board on a policy of filling the harbour in as the logical extension of the present policies of the Wellington Harbour Board."

"But isn't all this sort of stuff all Rather narrow—I mean, who's going to get interested in it other than a few environmental cranks?"

"Well, that's a kind of tricky question, you know. Perhaps some of this ecology stuff is a bit remote. But another thing they want to do is to have a go at the whole business of energy resources."

"But if they want to be political about issues, why don't they go for something which means something to ordinary people. I mean, it's all very well to get excited over things, but what does the ordinary sort of working guy care for energy resources, or the issues of urban transportation. He uses a bus to go to work."

"That's precisely the point. They have to go to work by bus while all the rich from Karori and Khandallah and so on drive to town in their cars and cars and cause the urban transportation problem. If these Ecology Action people do their stuff right, they might have some issues that matter to people."

"But will they do that?"

"Aw, they might not. If someone doesn't give them a boot up the bum to remind them what to do, it might be another disaster.