Comedy and Tragedy of the Commons

Comic swiped from the lecture slides of one of my geography classes today:




If you know anything about the "Tragedy of the Commons" model of behavior, I suspect you are already laughing.


If you don't:

The "Tragedy of the Commons" theory was proposed by Garrett Hardin (1968). According to it, in cases where multiple individuals use the same communal resource base (shepherds grazing sheep in a pasture), the tendency will be toward degradation of the resource. This is because the benefit to each individual of using more than his or her fair share (aka putting an extra sheep in the pasture to graze) is greater than the cost to him or her (which is spread amongst all of the resource users). If all users act in this way, the pasture will soon be overrun with sheep to the downfall of all. Following this to its logical end, an outside entity is needed in order to regulate the selfish behavior of the resource users.

A dominant critique of this, however, is that it doesn't account for the social relations between users. It suggests that they are incapable of talking to each other and generating their own locally agreed upon resource management solutions.

Now read the comic again. :D

Feeling Lucky

Wow. Its been a while since I wrote anything here and has reached a stage at which so much has happened and changed it is now difficult to come up with what to put. I have spent the summer holiday traveling around New Zealand – on my own for the first month and a half, then with visiting family (hooray!) Uni will be starting up again soon – class officially starts in just over a week but I will be doing field work for my geology paper starting Tuesday. (Oh goodness me I am excited!!)

All of my flatmates have moved in and signs point to us getting along nicely. Paul and Liz are geology students from small universities in the United States (St. Lawrence and Whitman respectively). Alistair, from Auckland, studies accounting (and surveying?). More pertinently, Liz knows how to break apples apart without a knife, Paul is talented at driving vehicles in narrow places, and Alistair worked this past summer on a tourist boat to Antarctica (has many pictures of poo covered penguins and ice shelves) He will also happily kick hedgehogs out of our green space. Literally kick them. I almost want the cute bugger to come back so I can try my hand....er..foot at it. This is Alistair’s first stint for uni flats (international student flats managed by the university which provides furniture, appliances, cutlery etc) so we have all of the things which he furnished his flat with last year. In other words, we have the most well equipped kitchen in the whole city! :-) My flatmates are similarly bewildered by the drinking culture at Otago (extremely loud music, broken glasses, and getting shit-faced as fast and as raucously as you can) – just doesn’t seem fun. Our flat is unlikely to ever be the source of drunken mayhem and, as far as I can tell, there is only one party house between me and campus. Hooray!

I need to sort out a whole summers worth of experiences and do some serious reflecting but for now I will just wax poetic about the benefits of liberal arts education. Turns out (unsurprisingly) I am very, very much a fan. In walking the lines between disciplines, you don’t feel as trapped in the structures of knowledge constructed by academia. You may get to the end of your educational journey with less practical skills in your given field but you have a better appreciation for the complexity of the world around you. I have discovered a serious discontinuity between what I expect to get from being at university and what my kiwi friends expect. The bottom line: the NZ academic system does not seem to understand the logic behind liberal arts. I was trying to find a paper (class) to replace something which had been shifted to second semester and needed to have one of the actual instructors sign off because I hadn’t taken the prerequisite. After asking me some questions, he decided that I should be doing a one-year post-graduate diploma, looked up the details and started reading me the requirements. “Is there any coherence to the courses you’ve taken?” well....yes.... sort of but definitely not institutionally. He commented that I would need to have completed my bachelors degree but I had explained to him that I was essentially done with mine. When I told him that graduating would invalidate my scholarship, he just sort of looked at me in puzzlement: what an odd restriction! who would ever create such a scholarship? Thank you Katherine E. Sullivan! Thank you Sullivan scholarship committee! It is such a mindboggling privilege to be here feeling out of place.

Recap

I have been travelling solo for nearly a month now (apologies for being too distracted to keep the blog up to date) I have met a huge range of amazing people, witnessed incredible geology, got myself into and out of some very dodgy situations, and learned a hell of a lot about myself. Travelling on your own encourages you to strike up conversations with random people, pick up hitchhikers, and be extra conscious of your tiny, precarious existence

Some memorable happenings (both highlights and low points):

1. tea and conversation with the one legged man making moonshine in his rundown trailer (and his appearance seemingly out of nowhere on the dark and incredibly foggy night prior)

2. staying up until two in the morning listening to/playing music at Chillawhile Backpackers after being severely music starved during the semester. Dear Elliot Smith – how had I never heard your music before?? Rest in Peace. Also waiting an hour for this music video to load.

3. three days of good weather at Aoraki/Mt. Cook giving me a chance to tramp around near the three main glaciers (Hooker, Mueller, and Tasman) of the associated national park


4. repeatedly running into two Israeli boys I met at the first hut on my first backpacking trip (4 times now and counting!)

5 hours without seeing anyone in a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains on the Greenstone Track (even if it was a bit rainy)


6 hours above the bushline on the Kepler Track


7 drunken fisherman showing up late in the evening on the Manapouri track forcing me and another tramper to change back into soaking wet clothes and hike another hour in pouring rain (to reach a tiny hut with a resident mouse which chewed into garbage and food during the night despite our best effort to hang the packs)

8. trading keys with the large animal lab technicians from Massey Uni at Woolshed Creek Hut. Allowed me to see the crazy extrusive rocks on the north face and them to avoid a rough eight hours on the windy south face


9. camping in Ruataniwha Conservation Area best equipped free campground ever!! (first encounter with anti-DoC graffiti as well – very interesting....)


....170 Little Blue Penguins coming in from the ocean at dusk and making a racket as they hung out around their burrows
__________________________________________________________

Today I moved to a new flat! Any letters sent to me by post should now be addressed to:
4/174 Forth St.
Dunedin, New Zealand 9016

It is a smaller place, fitting four flatmates as opposed to six. The complex features several cats which seem to expect to be let inside. I have a ground floor room but I think the view is still better than at my old flat. I am looking out at the edge of the botanic gardens and a clothesline as opposed to a birds-eye view of pavement and a bunch of other apartments. I have a nice big desk, a bookshelf, and an enormous closet. There is a cosy common area with a big sliding glass door, blankets and cooking spices left by previous residents, and one of the oldest televisions I have ever seen (only picks up one of NZ’s six TV stations ^_^).

Tomorrow Stephanie arrives!

Farewell to an especially eventful 2009 and wishing you a very happy new year!

End of semester

Posing in front of the Otago sign, with the departure of flatmates to go back to their home countries or travel around New Zealand imminent.
from the left: Jason, Dave, Anna, Me, Ditte, and Kyle

The semester has ended following a very long exam period. (so long that I went on a six day trip to Stewart Island in between finals).

I am going to the Fjordlands. Potentially for several weeks.

“Clean, Green” New Zealand?

One of my major interests in coming to New Zealand was to compare environmental policies and attitudes to that of the United States. It would be misleading, given my limited experiences to extrapolate and speak for the sentiments of the New Zealand public. I live in a complex of predominantly international students and it has been difficult to make strong connections outside of this network – most of the ways I’ve found to engage in environmental issues involve attending events which naturally attract those concerned with the environment. There is a strong dichotomy between the way environmental issues are treated at my flat (I’m not sure half of my flatmates understand what recycling is/make no effort to do so – our recycling bin is continually stolen so it’s difficult to blame them) and the opinions of people in my environmental politics class, in the tramping club, and attending environmentally focused lectures and debates. That being said, I feel like three and a half months should be enough time to make some general comments.

In large part, NZ is “clean” and “green” because of its low population density rather than any sort of purposeful planning or good regulatory controls. In fact, based on a study done by the OECD, New Zealand has some of the least “red tape” for businesses to get through of any developed country. The Resource Management Act (RMA) stands as the dominant form of environmental legislation. It dictates the resource consent process and the relationship between district, regional and national government. It advocates “sustainable management” but leaves what this actually means open to interpretation and so far the government hasn’t provided many standards or policy statements to clarify. The act is also very much effects-based; as long as a potential resource user can demonstrate that a proposed project has only minor impacts on the environment or that the effects will be mitigated, the consent will likely be approved. Because of this, the act is poor at dealing with the cumulative resource requests in an area and privileges present users over potential future uses for the resources.

That being said, some positives:
- environmental issues seem to get a more central place in political campaigns.
- more public concern and involvement (this one is the most likely to be affected by being encompassed by a university) Ex. there is little question of whether or not climate change is happening and strong support for the NZ government to step up its pledge to lower emissions. (The only person I have seen to question its existence was a professor attacking the validity and universal application of scientific knowledge and the people around me were getting pretty angry…) There has similarly been strong backlash against the current proposals to open conservation land (national parks and reserves) to mining.
- pay as you go rubbish collection – In Dunedin, the waste disposal services will only collect one type of trash bag approved by the city council. They are very expensive and are meant to be an incentive for people to recycle more (free service) and limit their waste.
- paying for plastic bags – this has been implemented by some stores. New World, the grocery store I frequent, put a policy in place momentarily where customers had to pay 5 cents per bag, but have unfortunately since rescinded it to prevent losing business. :(

Through my environmental politics class and other lectures around campus I have managed to hear 4 of the 9 NZ Green Party MPs. Jeanette Fitzsimmons spoke regarding the Emission Trading Scheme currently being proposed by National (equivalent to Republican party – they are currently in control of parliament) She argued that it would not be effective at reducing overall emissions to meet the Kyoto target and instead detailed the Green Party suggestions for reducing carbon. I also heard Sue Bradford speak about grassroots activism and the role of democratic practices in proper operation of a green party and the two co-leaders, Metiria Turei and Russel Norman, describing the NZ green party’s basic campaign platform and strategies.

This last speech was especially great because one of Norman’s specific interests was in water resource distribution. Someone asked him a question about current proposals to change allocation in the Canterbury region and, though he was clearly trying to keep his comments brief, it wasn’t long before he was filling the board with diagrams. He declared freshwater and water quality to be “New Zealand’s greatest environmental issue.” Not something I would have expected.

Experiencing Kiwis perception of what constitutes a healthy environment and sound policy gives perspective – from tramping club members bemoaning increasingly not being able to drink straight out of streams to outrage at the idea of using aquifer water (unsustainable) it is a very different baseline from which to measure environmental degradation. As another example, landscape has a completely different value here. In Environmental Politics, part of our assessment was based on presentations about recent, local resource conflicts. It turns out there is a surprising amount of antipathy toward proposed wind farms in Otago amongst the student presenters as well as in public response to the proposals. For the last four years I have been surrounded by people who are very optimistic about wind as an alternative energy and have scoffed at those who were opposed to them for aesthetic reasons as being unrealistic about our energy options (NIMBY – not in my backyard). I haven’t changed my stance but certainly putting wind turbines on the top of a ridge in a rural area of Otago means something very different to people than putting them in a field in rural Minnesota.

Some other issues:

The country champions biodiversity and has some amazingly cool endemic species including the only mountain parrot in the world, a variety of rare penguins and amusingly thick worms. But with 40 million sheep, hillsides covered in gorse, and 60 million possums (aka “little speed bumps”) it is hardly an ecological paradise. (Currently there are some pretty hefty debates regarding how to get rid of the possums. The Department of Conservation (DOC) is engaged in systematic poisoning with a chemical called 1080 but recent evidence has emerged showing that it has negative effects on humans.)

Insulation!!! – buildings in Dunedin and especially in the “student ghetto” are old and poorly designed to deal with cold South Island winters. Most houses are poorly insulated and lack double-paned windows. While winters are not nearly as bad as in MN, so much energy could be saved (and comfort provided) if the heat didn’t immediately go through the wall. They are currently working to address the problem – the government is subsidizing installation of insulation - but it will be probably a decade before all of the people on the waiting list can be processed.

All cars in NZ are imported. When a car enters the country, it will likely remain in use for twenty years. Because of this the market does not work efficiently to encourage fuel economy because, even when the price of petrol rises, it is being consumed by a fleet operating on decades old fuel conditions. Currently NZ does not have fuel economy standards for incoming cars – it needs them.

Puspawarna Gamelan!

Yesterday was the final performance of the community gamelan group I have been playing with for the past semester.


The pelog (7-note scale) instruments of our set in place at the Temple Gallery. About to start rehearsing.

It was a rather eclectic concert. The night was opened by an early music group playing pre-opera music from the 1600s on lute, viol de gamba, regular viol, and flute. This was followed by a soloist on Tibetan flute and then us. We played a few traditional pieces, but the main purpose of the concert was to premiere works written by people in the ensemble. One was written in traditional style by Ali, a fourth year honours student. Another was by a composition lecturer and featured a western structure, progression of changing melodies, and had parts for individual instruments written out.

"Frogs" by the artistic director of the group, Joko Susilo called for a string section (cello, violin, and bass) as well as "special effects" of croaking frogs with wooden percussion instruments and gongs placed on the ground.

The string section setting up.




Good old Saron II. Because Puspawarna Gamelan is a community ensemble with members coming and going depending on the rehearsal I've been shifted around to play several different instruments but this saron is the one I know best and the one I was lucky enough to play at this show.

Playing gamelan has been an amazing musical experience. This semester has made me conscious of how strongly dependent on western structural forms and notation I am when understanding music. Unlike an orchestra for example, where though the instruments are played together, the melody and temporary importance is passed between instruments and sections, in gamelan, it is hard to distinguish any particular instrument from the sound as a whole. Everyone is playing the melody or a variation upon it at all times - there are no diva parts. In addition, much time (and frustration) would be spent trying to figure out how many times Joko expected us to repeat a particular section; it was normal to spend ten minutes trying to get him to explicitly tell us the order so we could write it down and then having him cue something different the very next time we played it. Traditionally though, gamelan isn't supposed to be fixed in writing but rather changes based on the whim of the drummer and what he signals.

Also: Community! I am not sure what exactly it is...something about the instrumentation of the songs themselves, the large number of birthdays falling on rehearsal days (celebrated with food and the obligatory attempt to play "Happy Birthday" on gamelan which doesn't work very well because the scales lack the necessary notes), Joko's insistence on giving rides home after rehearsal, or (most likely) the ridiculous amounts of time and effort spent moving the heavy bronze instruments every time we have a concert...but at the after party it struck me how much the gamelan group felt like whanau (family). Music groups often inspire this sort of bond, I have just never felt it so quickly.

The concert was recorded so hopefully I will be able to acquire a copy and post a song or two here.


Gamelan practice room with just the slendro scale instruments. Ali resting while waiting for the truck to arrive with the instruments we brought to the concert.




"Ayun Ayun" written on a board in the practice room. Notably the form at the bottom(AA-AA-BA) is not what we played at the concert. ^_^

Conservation Weekend!!

As per my standard way of blogging this is rather out of date:

I went with eight other Australearn students to Papatowei for a weekend to volunteer at a couple of reserves. We stayed with an adorable older couple who were decades-long caretakers of the Te Rere reserve, a privately managed habitat for yellow-eyed penguins. We destroyed a handful of gorse bushes (a species of extremely prickly plants introduced as a way to fence in sheep but spreading to cover entire hillsides), set traps for stoats, and put out poison for possums. Apparently there are over 60 million possums in NZ and they each eat 1 kg of vegetation per day!! During the afternoon, we got up close and personal with flax – uprooting, splitting and then replanting to provide cover for the penguins. Flax is a huge, tough plant and it took the seven of us half an hour to get one out of the ground. We used a grubber to clear the vegetation around the base of the plant. Then we went around with two spades cutting away at the roots and trying to dig it out of the ground. We put a thick rope around the base and five of us pulled while the others continued trying to cut away at the roots. Eventually we got it out with several people pulling directly on the leaves and Sam tackling it from the side. Once it was sufficiently tipped over, we pulled it apart, being careful that each division contained a substantial amount of root. We then had to cut the leaves short so that the plants wouldn’t blow over in the wind with their seriously diminished extent of roots and replanted them.


Flax plant pulled apart with cut leaves strewn everywhere. Non-uprooted flax top right.


Apparently another accepted method for getting flax out of the group is to put explosives at the base and blow it out of the ground (we were shown a photo of this being done :-) ).

It was nearing dusk when we finished, so we gathered our equipment and went out to a point to watch the penguins coming in.



As we walked out of the reserve, you could hear the penguins rustling around in the bush. Earlier in the day, we came across one by accident which had not gone out to the ocean for the day. It let the entire group slowly pass by it before hiding away. We were so close that you could see its yellow eyes and pink feet! Amazing.

That night we went to the neighbor’s (a 93 yr old woman and her cat) to watch the rugby match between the final Tri-Nations game between the All Blacks and Wallabies. They were playing for 2nd and 3rd so it was vital that we win and not get “the wooden spoon.” It was the first rugby match I have been able to watch all the way through made extra great by having people around with a detailed knowledge of the game who were willing to explain what was happening (fouls etc). All Blacks dominated 33 – 6.

It was a perfectly clear night, so after the game I borrowed a stargazing book and stood in the middle of the street. I’m kind of ashamed to admit how long it took to get my bearings. It’s tricky to find the Southern Cross when it isn’t burned into your consciousness, you don’t know which direction is which, and there are incredible numbers of other stars. Eventually I got the book turned the right way….found the Triangulus Australiana (sp?) and looked at the signs of the zodiac upside down. The Milky Way was crazy bright; even after ruining your night vision with a flashlight, you could see it only a few seconds after turning the light off. You can see galaxies (besides the milky way) in the Southern hemisphere!!!

The next day we did some work on an interactive nature trail in the center of town and wandered around on the beach for a few hours. Best weekend ever.




View out of the window from the place we stayed.