Saturday, 26 February 2000

I pulled the plug on the Embassy's website after receiving an email stating that I "may well print inappropriate or damaging material" and that I should consult a third party first. More enlightening details were not provided.

Someone else had said the third party was a lawyer. This has come at a very trying time of sleepless nights for me when I no longer have faith in the official checks supposed to protect us from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. So I removed all website material until I could find out what was being referred to.

The above problem is no longer - I trust. After exchanging email I am slightly closer to a solution. The problem concerned a news item about what was said at a public meeting. If I understand correctly what I reported is not in dispute. Rather the organisation concerned is changing its policy from what was reported and at the moment is at a "delicate" stage. I can understand and accept this. One good thing to come out of this is that I now have a contact for the organisation who is prepared to supply further material about them, as well as material for another subject of current public interest.

So most of the website is back up. However, many of the files in the "root directory" haven't been reloaded. This directory was the original one and acted as a work place and as such has became cluttered with abandoned files. I am now sorting through the junk pile to rescue the good stuff. Please bear with me.

Future and Ramblings
As for the future of the website, someone else says they may be able to part-host it, but even this isn't certain. I certainly won't be able to continue with it. Basically my older (and working) brother and sister want me out of the "family" home so it can be sold and the proceeds divvied up. After that happens I won't be able to afford private sector rent and a phone (including internet access) at the same time. Last weekend my factory-floor-to-office-manager brother-in-law came over with a chainsaw and despite my protests proceeded to do some serious damage to what garden there was. Although I have since issued a trespass notice on him I have endured sleepless nights expecting him back at any time. When my mother was alive she appreciated the voluntary community work I did and acted as a buffer between myself and my paid-work siblings. But now the fangs and claws are out.

I have no faith that things will improve for the Poor and Unemployed in the foreseeable future despite a change of politicians. And despite being a hi-tech freak all my adult life (mainly as a window-shopper) at the same time I have harboured concerns about what damage technology does to people and the environment and how much of the current techno-fashion industry, "progress", etc is unnecessary and indeed harmful. Therefore I'm looking at getting off the dole and becoming as self-sufficient as possible.

This will mean abandoning over 10 years of community work, as well as my email penpals with whom I exchange delightful banter. (Interestingly, the first protest I attended when I returned to Christchurch after looking for work up north for some years was in 1990 against then prime minister Mike Moore - now head of WTO. What has been achieved?)

I am neither a political activist or out-going by nature. If stereotyping dictated reality then I'd be a spectacled pimply short-haired nerd because I tend towards science. Currently I believe that maximum participation in society provides maximum return and that the world is too complex for any one unproven grand unification theory (or GUTs) to cover everything in nature. The Biography section of the online Encyclopedia shows that the Poor can contribute much to "civilisation" when helped up, believed in and given the chance.

Unfortunately this is not an Age of Reason but an Age of Superstition where the rich and powerful put their trust in quasi-religious economic chants, believe their god Mammon is the only one, and force non-worshippers to be caught in their wars of marketforces. Until an effective way is found to do battle and winning against these closed-minded zealots I suggest avoiding direct contact as much as possible.

Some people have accused me of running away and hiding. These are the very people who have the talent of being able to hide wherever they may be. We all have different skills so it is irrational to condemn someone for not being someone else. So be it.

Ewen Coker's Poor People's Embassy sites on The Wayback Machine:

• embassy.org.nz
  
• hammer.prohosting.com/~penz/