Twentyfive cities are responsible for emitting more than half of all the urban greenhouse gasses around the globe despite covering only two percent of the earth’s surface. Asian cities particularly Tokyo and Shanghai were found to be the highest emitters of greenhouse gasses. Cities in Europe America and Australia had significantly higher emissions. The top sources were the electricity used in buildings and road transport.
The Listener
Simon Williams Lion’s District Governor.
Martinborough Lions hosted their District Governor (DG) Simon Williams at their meeting of 27th October. Simon gave the club an overview of what’s going on with Lions
International, which the Martinborough Club is a part of, and gave an update of New Zealand Lions current priorities around the globe.
Simon passed on a message from Lions International President Douglas Alexander; – Douglas wished to reinforce what Lions are all about through “Connecting to communities through impassioned giving, serving in this moment and leading with the Heart”
Martinborough Lions donate to the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF). Simon noted that in the past year the foundation put more back into New Zealand than we paid into the fund. Financial support was specifically provided to the West Coast flood victims, and also a big donation was made to support the new Wellington Regional Children’s Hospital playground. The LCIF fund supports important work particularly in humanitarian and disaster relief efforts around the world.
The Lions International major themes for the coming year are Childhood Cancer, Diabetes, Environment, Hunger and Sight. Martinborough Lions actively supports all these causes through our members’ participation or our donating to them. DG Simon told the Martinborough Club that we were doing well holding our membership up at over 40 members, and told the club not to relax our efforts to bring more new members into the club.
DG Simon’s personal message to Martinborough Lions was “Dream – Believe – Achieve”. Hecomplimented the club on its significant range of activity noting the strong comaradie that exists within the club. … Continue Reading
PEAR SHAPED
With some sense of relief 2021 is coming to an end. It hasn’t been flash for most of us and as a result it’s been difficult to find moments of joy to allow us to keep our chins up. As it happens, I had a bit of feedback, as it were, that November’s sardine story was well received, and perhaps helped in this regard. So for the moment, and for the final Star issue of the year, enough of doom and gloom: food it is again.
The term ‘pear shaped’, as you will be aware, means to go wrong, fail miserably and go awry in a terrible fashion. I’d always thought the association had something to do with an unfortunate body outline, but further investigation revealed the expression may have originated from the Royal Air Force’s description of pilots’ poor executions of loops in the sky, resulting in pear shapes rather than circles. A lot like this year. At least the humble pear is off the hook, and the avocado too.
Avocados are possibly my favourite food. This was not always so. My introduction to them came via a friend, who returned from Rarotonga [when travel was A Thing] bearing a box of pear-shaped objects which appeared to be coated in wrinkled black leather. Sadly they had not travelled well and became over-ripe in the process, so slicing one open revealed murky greyish flesh with the consistency and probable taste of slimy putty. I was polite and ate a cautious mouthful, but also put off. Months elapsed before I tasted an avocado again and now they’re a must on my shopping list. Supermarkets encourage them. The avocado stack is the first thing you come to after you’ve masked up, scanned in, sanitised your hands, grabbed a basket and, following the yellow striped arrows pasted to the floor, gone through the self-opening glass doors. Happy days! … Continue Reading
Let the library start your summer with fascinating life stories
This spring, as we idly dream of summer adventures that may or may not be stuck at a Covid-19 traffic light, come by the Martinborough Library to feed your restless mind on these tales of big lives lived widely and well:
A Thousand Years of Joys and Sorrows, by Ai Wei Wei.
When his poet father is exiled to a freezing labour camp during China’s Cultural Revolution, young Ai tags along for a what becomes an “open-ended course in wilderness survival training” and a life-changing political education. A lifetime later, the now world-famous artist was himself detained in 2011 by the Chinese government. This strinking memoir seeks out parallels between the lives of father and son, but also between Ai and the prison guards who were never permitted to leave his side. A moving account of the intertwining power of freedom and memory to make us who we are.
Helen Kelly: Her Life, by Rebecca Macfie.
A hero to many, ‘that woman’ to her foes, the first female head of New Zealand’s trade union movement stirred fierce emotions across the political spectrum with her life-long struggle to better the lives of the country’s workers. In this meticulous and moving account of her too-short life, award-winning Listener journalist Rebecca Macfie explores Kelly’s own life and motivations but also gives a masterful account of a defining period in New Zealand history, as the old welfare state gives way to neoliberalism. “Clear-eyed and powerfully written, this is a book every New Zealander should read,” Kristy Johnston, Stuff.
Between Two Kingdoms: What Almost Dying Taught Me About Living, by Suleika Jaouad.
Diagnosed with leukaemia at 22, the author set aside dreams of being a war correspondent to chronicle her own personal struggle in her celebrated “Life, Interrupted” column for the New York Times. This deeply affecting memoir takes us through her gruelling illness but also her survival and reconnection with the world. Once deemed cancer-free, she takes an epic road trip to visit the readers who cheered her on, delivering a profound—and in a pandemic, incredibly timely—meditation on the power of human connection.
If you can’t find these or any other title on the shelf, just ask—we’d love to reserve a copy for you!
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