This column will bring you new ideas about things that effect Taranaki. It is a “critical comment”, which means it takes a sharp and direct approach. Please feel free to reply by writing to the editor of the Opunake & Coastal News.

Each of us lives our own private individual life. We are on our own when we are born and when we die. Our thoughts are always private if we want them to be that way. But, between birth and death we depend on our family, our community, our region and our country. At each level we hit problems. Most of what happens to us is determined by forces outside of ourselves. There is little we can control. Ask our dairy farmers about their ability to control the weather or prices. Does the farmer have any real ability to control government policy? They try. Ask children or teachers about their ability to control what they are taught or how they are taught. Most people attend the church their parents attended, or not, as the case may be. From birth we are locked into institutions such as kindy, school, university, workplace, farm, business, council, and country. Good people spend their lives making the best of what they encounter.

Other people buck up against the institutions and try to improve them. There are different ways of doing this.

 In Taranaki most people like to work “from within the system” but there are others who take a radical approach. They set up their own alternative communities or plot the downfall of schools or political parties or whatever they oppose.

Extremist groups like Islamic State are overwhelmed by their own narrow concerns. They lose their humanity in a cause. But most who want change in society take a moderate and reasoned approach. They write to newspapers, offer themselves for the myriad of committees that make our community work and they try to balance their family responsibilities with the advancement of our institutions. This new column is in that spirit. I hope you contribute to our community and advance your ideals.
Robert Shaw
robert@porirua.net