The politicians in person - for NZ Gifted Awareness Week

Yes, another political post for Gifted Awareness Week!

I hope that the following impressions of the speakers at the Auckland Political Panel last night will help those of you who could not attend. I am biased but I welcome discussion from others with different biases.

Kudos to all the parties who sent representatives to talk with us in a face-to-face! You can also read the official party gifted policy document for more information.

The evening was introduced by Deb Clarke, CEO of NZCGE and Rose Blackett, President of NZAGC and moderated by Lynda Garrett of the University of Auckland. All gave fantastic introductions to the barriers and frustrations those of us in the gifted community experienced, and they posed questions for the panelists. After the panelists' formal speeches, questions were taken from the audience, which was comprised of many experienced gifted educators and advocates.

National

Maggie Barry had this portfolio given to her recently; while she had done some admirable last-minute swotting, like most last minute swotters she showed that she didn't understand the big picture, even her own party's decisions about funding. She reiterated that National had chosen to fund the underachieving educational area instead of extending gifted children and, although properly sympathetic and outraged at our plight, made no indication that there are any plans to change.

Regarding the school culture problem and bullying of gifted children, she felt that bolstering the self-esteem of the bullied was crucial, as in her experience with her own child being bullied, the bullies were "waste of space individuals."

She promised to report our messages back to the government.

Labour

Chris Hipkins, showing more clue than Maggie, pointed out that 5 out of 5 children succeeding did not mean they were all equal. He described the progress in gifted education that occurred during Labour's government, to many nodding heads. He promised there would be more funding specifically in our area, but was not able answer directly as to what area that money would be taken from as their budget announcement is not yet public. He contributed to the 2013 BlogTour.

Greens

Catherine Delahunty showed clear personal investment and history aligned with our interests (she has been blogging for the BlogTour since 2012). Her speech included genuine passion and detail about the barriers we face, which resonated with the audience, many of whom she already knew. Rumour has it that her car was shunted on the motorway on the way here, and she came to speak anyway. Although she supports separate targeted programmes for the gifted, she believes that these should be supported by the government. She said that she would remove the funding from the charter school area in order to fund gifted education.

NZ First

Tracey Martin said some great things, but lost some points for announcing she had decided not to change her speech and then clearly reading her speech. NZ First highlights the need for a national summit on the success of our current education direction. She had personal experience with her own special needs children in the school system, and the failure of the system to address these needs led her eventually to get involved in politics. She said that gifted funding would come from rearranging the current allocation away from the top level bureaucracy in education.

ACT

David Seymour declared that ACT knew nothing about gifted education and that the Ministry of Education was also not qualified in this area, but that charter schools would fix everything because everyone could most effectively "vote with their feet" to another school if one school did not suit. While he mentioned knowing that having to move schools was a terrible thing for child and parent, he said that having the choice of a wide variety of special character schools was the practical solution to providing for individual student needs. While David did not blog for the BlogTour, John Banks contributed in 2012.

Maori and Internet Mana

No show.

Conclusion

All these politicians have a dream of making a difference, but their priorities, goals, and chosen directions are very different. Use your vote when it counts.

This post has been written for the 2014 Gifted Awareness Week Blog tour. See all the blogs as they are voted on...

Jessica Parsons is the current president of Auckland Explorers, branch of the NZ Association for Gifted Children. She has two gifted children with her gifted husband.

Is it smart to vote?

You may not make it to the Wellington or Auckland Gifted Political Panels this Gifted Awareness Week, but everyone has the chance to vote on Election Day (20 September, 2014).

The word these days seems to be "don't vote, it only encourages them" or "if voting made a difference, they would make it illegal."

Taking off any rose-coloured glasses about democracy, voting and the system, let's examine a few things.

Low voter turnout

In 2011, NZ's voter turnout was the lowest since the 1880s. And for 2011 and 2008, the low voter turnout returned a National (conservative) win.

Low turnout favouring the right is a democracy truism researched worldwide. Conservatives like to vote. They vote for their people. They don't argue endlessly about who are their people or if they're always right or whether the system is broken.They know that they want their people in the driving seat of whatever system controls the power and the money.

If you stay away from the polls on principle, you are voting to continue with a government whose minister would make the Maui dolphin go the way of the moa for money. (And who, in case you haven't heard, cut gifted funding in 2009.)

MMP

"The two main parties are both the same anyway!" I hear you groan. There's some truth in that. But in NZ, we have MMP.

Is MMP perfect? No. But there are millions of people in the world, especially in the USA, who would get to the voting booth on their knees, kissing the ground in front of the door, for the chance to vote for a minor party and have that party actually get into government and pass bills and stuff.

We certainly have some strong and interesting choices on the table for the power balance after this election.

Does your vote matter?
 
5% = percentage of people generally accepted as gifted in any area
 
5% = percentage of the party vote needed to get representatives in Parliament

If this coincidence isn't enough to get you out to start the Gifted Party of New Zealand, I hope it illustrates how even a small number of people voting strategically to promote their own special interest can make a difference.


So is it smart to vote? 

Only you can decide that. But there will be plenty of people voting who believe that the gifted already have enough advantages, so on Election Day I will be there, ticking my voting paper for some left-leaning, status-quo stirring, 1% bashing, people and planet power party.

I hope to see you there.

This post has been written for the 2014 Gifted Awareness Week Blog tour. See all the blogs as they are voted on...

Jessica Parsons is the current president of Auckland Explorers, branch of the NZ Association for Gifted Children. She has two gifted children with her gifted husband.

In a vegan tomorrow, would vegans be happy?

Bad celebration picture. Fireworks aren't vegan.

Imagine it! Tomorrow - no animal farms torturing animals for profit. No enslaved mother cows and orphaned baby calves. No more animals being skinned alive for their fur. No more male chicks being ground up or smothered in plastic bags. No more reading labels for casein, whey, lard, gelatine...

Think of the vegan celebrations! Vegans worldwide would be so happy...

Maybe. For a little while, anyway.

Making a better world

Vegans would be happy if all the above happened. But it wouldn't be long before other targets arose. Because the only one who shares your exact vision is you. A vegan world, overnight or gradual, might still not grant your wishes.

Would a vegan world still have:

• carnivorous companion animals
• uncontrolled human population growth
• abortion
• pest control
• religion
• political parties
• guns
• nuclear power
• wars
• fake meat
• junk food
• economic divide
• humans being stupid and selfish

etc?

Vegan wars are legendary. Many vegan activists would quickly move on to the next global problem, or argue that the world is not vegan enough yet.

Hypothetical, so who cares?

The world today is imperfect. But a vegan world would still be imperfect, with problems desperately needing solutions. (The house will never be clean, and the world will never be perfect.)

We absolutely, positively need people who work to make the world a better place. Humans are great problem-solvers.

But activist burnout is very real and dangerous to mental health. Every day, a vegan shares anger and despair over the billions of animals suffering right now, or the people responsible. Every day, even more vegans feel but don't share.The knowledge of the problems leads to a feeling of overwhelming responsibility. There is no end to the problems, and one human, or one group, can't encompass the solution.

So today, while we work for a better world, we also must make space every day to celebrate, personally, the good things about this one. If we forget to enjoy this world, how will we remember how to enjoy a better one?

What is one good thing about your world today?

• Preventing Burnout
• Survival Strategies for Activists
• Honesty vs Burnout

Decluttering: a win-win

Last year I was lucky enough to win a beautiful set of eco-friendly bamboo party ware from Friendlypak in New Zealand. More about eco-friendly packaging...check out the new biodegradable cling wrap!

I had a serious decision to make - these bowls and trays are beautiful, but I already have a set of party bowls.  The prize bowls also needed a home...not the downstairs sofa.  So was their home in my home or someone else's home?

I implemented Workout #4 of my Productive New Year's Workouts and cleaned out all the shelves in my refrigerator, pantry, and other kitchen cupboards. That is a serious workout, and it lasted a couple of days.

Mid-clean

After

Not only did I get clean cupboards, decluttering is a natural side-effect.

I repackaged some food items and threw out some more.  We still have a full pantry, but just better.












 And just look at our wine collection.

We don't drink wine!

It always seemed wrong to just get rid of perfectly good bottles of wine.  So instead, we left them hidden away until they were no longer perfectly good bottles of wine. When the inner hoarder wins, everyone loses.  Those bottles of bubbly are from our engagement and wedding - some 15 years ago!

Out they went, the less antique ones free to friends who were up for a lucky dip, and the antiques down the drain and into the recycling.

And the prize for decluttering? 

A new home for my prize...

Don't they look great at my son's birthday party?

What things do you have hidden away that need a new home?

Frugal Vegan Transformers - Beyond Leftovers

Save time and money in your vegan kitchen! 

You know you don't want to forget your lurking leftovers - that means mess and waste.  You can munch them yourself for lunch or serve them at the end of the week for "take it or leave it day."  

Or you can take charge - don't let them gang up on you, transform them into a new delicious meal right away.  

These transformers are tested in my very own home.

The secret life of the humble potato
First - steamed or mashed potatoes.  I steam as many potatoes as I can possibly fit into our large pressure cooker. My family loves mashed potatoes and gravy!  I make them special by mixing in very small pieces of a vegan sausage.  Mashed potatoes can easily be shaped into a heart or other designs that will win over the kids.

What next? Presto change-o, potato pancakes.  Mix your mashed potatoes with a bread/flour binder and fry them up.  Hint: My pancake technique often fails to satisfy, so I use my waffle iron for instant crunchy success.

What next? Curry!  It's pretty easy to save a cup of mashed potatoes from the lot.  I add a can of Indian flavoured tomatoes, some soymilk, and blend.  Make lots of rice (think extras!) and serve dinner.

Rice is still nice
 
What next? That rice is still fresh enough to serve with a Chinese sauce on the side.  If you're really pressed for time, plain soy sauce will do, especially if you also serve some cashews or peanuts. 

What next? Fill your Mexican nachos or tortillas with leftover rice along with all those healthy vegetables and beans.

What next? Fried rice takes tired leftover rice for a carnival ride.  It's also wonderful for hiding lots of veggies inside, chopped finely.

What next? Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - transforms into soup!
Safe handling of leftovers - this is easier for vegans but still worth a read...

Getting away from it all, or the Hotel Effect

My kids will, out of the blue, ask if we can stay in a hotel.  This is unrelated to how close to home we may be.

And often, I wish I could say yes.

Why?

With a better than average home, with all the comforts of home, why oh why would we want to stay in a hotel?  We only choose the budget ones anyway, so what's so special?

Well, what do you see when you open a hotel room door?  No problems!

Uncluttered - mostly, you just see furniture.  Invitingly made beds, clear tables, tidy sink spaces....  You can only clutter it with what you've brought, and you left most of your stuff at home.  You probably brought so little you can pack it all in less than 1/2 hour - compare that to your last house move.  Yes.  I know.

Clean - someone else cleaned this already.  It's so uncluttered that it probably didn't take long.  If you have to wash dishes, there aren't many supplied anyway - about enough for one family meal. 

Cosy - Those dishes?  You can wash them a couple of steps away from the dining table, while still chatting to the slower eaters.

Easy!

Most of us don't want to live in a hotel all the time, although I am in love with tiny houses and The Everyday Minimalist did spend some time this way.  Most of us would eventually miss something that we can only find at home - and that might simply be space and privacy.

But we can get some of the goodness of hotel living in our own homes.

Declutter!

You can't say too much about decluttering, and most of it's been said before.  Having only what you really need is the key to sanity and cleanliness in the home.

Here's just a start on decluttering tips:

• Should it stay or....?
• Outsmarting your inner hoarder
• Zen Habit's tips and more Zen Habit's tips
• Down with clutter
• And almost anything at 365 Less Things 

Work on your entrance

You won't get the "ahhhhhh" factor if you open your door into chaos.  Try it for yourself - step outside and do a grand entrance and really look!

• What's there that doesn't need to be?
• What's messy that could be organised?
• What's visible that could be hidden? 

Retreat!

After you've made a perfect entrance, choose one other space in the house to keep as your "hotel away from home."

If you can't keep the entire house sane, make sure you have this one retreat where you can relax and unwind.

And if you sell enough of your unwanted stuff, maybe you can hire a cleaner for your "hotel"!

You gotta have dreams...

Have your say...

What are your favourite tricks to make your house look professionally fabulous?

Coffee, tea, or mess?

My next decluttering area volunteered itself during my recent Use It Up challenge - our tea/coffee shelves.  Too many Use It Up candidates equals a decluttering challenge!

These shelves have an awkward location.  I have to lean sideways over the kitchen bench to reach them, so only the lower shelf is really easy for me to reach.  And the minivac installation makes it worse.  What can I say?  It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Result?  Everything ended up piled on the lower shelf.  When I saw that the bags of tea I actually use had been tossed up to the top shelf as clutter, I knew there was no time to lose.

Strateagy

Accessibility is key for this type of project.  This is the high-use kitchen; these are hospitality items you want to gather at a moment's notice with one hand while preparing kids' nibbles and carrying on a conversation with the other visiting mothers.

So I want all the regularly used items on the bottom shelf or the front of the middle shelf. We don't have that many kinds of tea and coffee we like!  So what is all that stuff on that shelf?

Declutter 

This was all clutter!

We had:

• two half full containers of decaf instant coffee
• two nearly empty tea boxes and one small opened bag (I don't need breastfeeding tea anymore!)
• two half full tea boxes
• a jar of old mint

Teabags in plastic bags will keep longer and take up less room the more are used up.  Cut the labels from the boxes to keep inside the bags. 

During the declutter, I also enjoyed the very last of the Wildberry teabags (blue and purple box) with some of my stevia leaves from the last Use It Up challenge.

Reorganise

I found a canister for all the teas, including one plastic bag with the stray anonymous teas.  This is on top so I will use them up first.

I rehomed the salt and pepper.  I moved unopened tea and coffee to higher shelves.  I also moved the opened coffee packets up because my husband is the coffee drinker and he's taller.

And for my last trick, I removed the minivac installation.  I can think of at least two better places for it than in this tight corner.

Enjoy!

Before

After!

Secondhand smarts - on display

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we've practically been on a spending spree over the last few months.  TV, food processor, car...

All of it secondhand, of course!

This was another serendipitous peek in the back room at ye olde favourite charity shop in the hope of finding...exactly what I found.

History

In our previous home, we had an broken tile fireplace and brick chimney.  We demolished that ourselves and installed a beautiful built-in rimu wood, mirror, and glass display cabinet.  The new owners loved it too, so we made a quick and cheap purchase to hold our lovely things in our new house.   It has featured in previous posts, but here it is again.

From a distance, it is OK - the top is fine but all the bottom cupboard doors are poor replacements and don't close well.  It doesn't fit in the dining room but everything in it gets used there.  And it crowds that corner.

But for $50, it did the trick.  My decluttering left quite a lot of empty spots.

Looking here, looking there...
We had been halfheartedly seeking a corner cupboard on TradeMe but it was hard work. 

But in the charity shop, I could look at my new prize, and send DH to look at it, and we agreed that it was just perfect! 

Out with the old (sold for $51) and in with the new.

Now these beautiful things are in their natural home, the dining room!

Moving so many lovely things from one cabinet to another got me wondering how many quality wine and other liquor glasses of different shapes we actually need - we rarely drink and only ever drink wine with company.  (It seemed like a grownup thing to do to have wine glasses on the wedding register.)  Stay tuned.

So another after picture is now a before:

 We can now enjoy our whole lounge window.

Light and bright - success!