I just stumbled upon this section..

Have you heard of 'transition towns' thats whats happening in some of the communities in nz.
The christchurch earthquake was a big wake up call.

I think more ppl realise that churches ought to be cooperating rather than divisive.
I dont get the 'gun' thing, dont live anywhere that ive ever needed to have one.

Goodbook said:

Have you heard of 'transition towns' thats whats happening in some of the communities in nz.
The christchurch earthquake was a big wake up call.

I think more ppl realise that churches ought to be cooperating rather than divisive.
I dont get the 'gun' thing, dont live anywhere that ive ever needed to have one.

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Yep, Transition Towns are a thing here in (S) Australia, too. My particular area also has CPR Groups - that stands for "Community Preparing for Recovery" or "Community Preparedness and Recovery". Transition Towns is sort of general sustainability, growing your own food, low-environmental-impact. CPR is for preparing for and recovering from emergencies such as major storms, bushfires, and it would be earthquakes if we had them here.

Also don't get the gun thing, though. I think that's very American. I can count on one hand the people I know who own guns, all farmers and station-owners who need them for shooting wild pigs &c. Given that my community's response to a disaster is basically "I have a generator! Who needs medicine refrigerated? Come here!" and similar, needing a gun for self-defence becomes almost laughable...

Rachel96 said:

needing a gun for self-defence becomes almost laughable...

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Even here in the US, most people will never need or use a gun for self-defense. Those few who do (comparatively only) or who suffer criminal acts because they don't have a gun will never call it laughable. There are evil people who don't care that you are generous or non-violent. That just makes you less of a threat to them.

Perhaps “laughable” was too strong a word choice, I’ll concede that.

But I was speaking an Australian to a Kiwi, and that sort of is how we might view the idea of needing a gun in a natural disaster. You must remember that the last mass shooting in my country happened in 1996, which I can’t even remember, whereas in the US, your last mass shooting happened… probably today. Probably right now. To us, it doesn’t seem like it’s just “a few” people who have to face criminals with guns over there. Our cultural reference is now so far away from yours when it comes to guns that honestly, a lot of us have given up trying to understand why you haven’t got it already.

So, yeah, maybe that point of view does make me seem “less of a threat” and more of a target to the evil people who have guns. But where I live – and where the person I was talking to lives – it’s so much harder for evil people (or anyone else) to have a gun.

And, where I live – and where the person I was talking to lives – we’ve got through some pretty severe natural disasters within the last few years, we’ve come out of it pretty well and there was no violence and certainly no evil people with guns taking advantage of the generosity of the general community.

That’s what I meant. I can see how it wouldn’t make sense, or might even be offensive, to someone reading it from the US. But again, I was commiserating an Australian to a Kiwi, and this is our situation.

Rachel96 said:

I can see how it wouldn’t make sense, or might even be offensive, to someone reading it from the US. But again, I was commiserating an Australian to a Kiwi, and this is our situation.

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No, it's not offensive. It would be nice if guns were unnecessary anywhere, but that's not this world.