Hell is other Kiwis

Every now and then, there's a glimpse of self-centred NIMByism behind the facade of the easygoing Kiwi myth. Yesterday, there was the NZ Bus refusal to advertise the Atheist Bus campaign. The spokesperson for Atheist Bus NZ was on bFM today explaining that many other Western countries ran the campaign without incident. It's just our allegedly compassionate Christianist godbotherers in NZ who wish to stifle this innocuous debate.

Then there's the Wet House planned for Island Bay (maximum occupancy 10 people) that has been canned. That harm reduction idea was killed with the help of reactionary crap like this site:

Children were at risk! One wet house resident in the UK killed three people! Watch the documentary of an obviously unwell man who might present some kind of threat!

The very latest round of NIMBYism has turned up in Hastings. While the Springhill Addiction Centre is undergoing refurbishment, an old rest home was going to be used as a temporary site for 20 people in recovery. This was too much for the NIMBYs of Mahora, who applied to the Environment Court (!) for a stay of proceedings. The Hawkes Bay DHB has given up, as Springhill would be opened before the court hearing had concluded.

It seems we only want to help those in need as long as our property prices remain unaffected.

The NIMBYed gentry

Deborah Coddington is appalled that a wind farm in the Wairarapa is going to wreck the world around her:

With 45 turbines twice as high as the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and blades twice as large as the Westpac Stadium, sited 8km from the town square, this could be the end of Martinborough as we know and love it. The tourism industry our economy depends on - wine festivals, outdoor concerts, homestays, weddings, cycling - will they continue with noise from these turbines?

The township of Martinborough (population 1,300) is home to a lot of well-off Wellington part-timers, not just Deborah Coddington. Madame Prawn has a pad out that way, as does Dick Griffin, who made his displeasure known on an otherwise jovial Panel with Mike Mora on Friday.

Quite how cyclists will be affected by wind turbines up a mountain range has not been made clear. And aren't wine growers fond of using low flying helicopters to keep frosts away in winter? So much for the noise factor. Are the gentry really arguing that you won't be able to hear outdoor concerts becuase of wind turbines 8 kilometres away from the town centre?

Pah. I've got acquaintances in Ashhurst who say the 103+ wind turbines near them are not a noise problem. Even on the very rare occasions when an Easterly hits them, the noise is no louder than a dishdrawer in the next room. Most of the time there's no sound at all.

I put wind turbine opponents in the same category as opponents of cell towers; hypocrites who want all the benefits of the technology without any of the negatives.They are the fairweather mates of the Little Red Hen, wanting the bread without all the effort.

Yet I bet those rich cluckers will raise a hell of a stink and Meridian will end up ditching this choice windy spot for electricity harvesting because of them. What the rich and powerful want, the rich and powerful get.