Hot off the press issue #5 of Spirit of the Times focuses on shifting the cultural paradigm, and is packed with news, analysis, comment and critique, as well as reviews of socially conscious media. You can read it right here on the website, download the pdf version by clicking right here, or even drop us a line to order a hard-copy to your home at cost only. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together!
New Website Section – Promotional Materials
We have opened a new section - Promotional Materials. In it you can find various flyers, posters and banners as well as other visual art. Many of the graphics are home printer friendly so you can get rocking straight away.
Join The Movement
Joining the Movement is easy - no official membership, no fees, and no secret handshake! Just click and decide whether you would like to be involved in your local chapter, a national project team, or an international project team, or even just to receive news and updates. You can get involved in as many or as few ways as you like and at a level that suits your time limits, skills and interests. Click for further information on how to join.
After the screening the Zeitgeist Movement SA team will be around for Q&A and issues-related chit-chat. After 9pm guests are welcome to join us for a social drink at a nearby pub.
Please note: Bliss cafe will be open as a venue only and will not be serving food as this is outside their usual trading hours.
If you would like to host a screening of Gasland on behalf of TZM AU please register online and you will soon receive a support package to enable your screening to be a success.
Join our brothers and sisters in Taiwan for a brief tour of the beautiful island and a heartfelt, thought-provoking message of our responsibility to act to save our planet – regardless of whether we are affiliated with the Zeitgeist Movement or any other group.
In Mandarin with subtitles in English (click cc button on video clip).
Hot off the press issue #5 of Spirit of the Times focuses on shifting the cultural paradigm, and is packed with news, analysis, comment and critique, as well as reviews of socially conscious media. You can read it right here on the website, download the pdf version by clicking right here, or even drop us a line to order a hard-copy to your home at cost only. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together!
The latest issue of Spirit of the Times is now out and can be read online or downloaded here. The theme of this issue is Shifting the Cultural Paradigm, and promises to be a hard-hitting wake-up call for a world in dire need of change. Featuring informative myth-busting articles, analytical essays, sobering commentary, book and film reviews, and news through the prism of the Movement with sustainability as the bottom line, Spirit of the Times aims to offer food for thought and inspiration to action.
If you would like to contribute to Spirit of the Times, or would like to comment on any particular article, please just drop us a line.
If you would like to receive a hard-copy version please drop us a line with your name and address, specifying whether you would prefer the sustainable-sized A5 version ($4) or the standard-sized A4 version ($8). Please note, TZM AU does not allow any advertising in the magazine, therefore sacrificing the opportunity to cover production costs for the sake of integrity. The production team are all volunteers and no one is paid a cent for their work , all of which comes from the heart. The hard-copy cost of the magazine is simply the cost of production plus postage with no offsets incurred from advertising.
Open-source media graphics project
TZM AU’s open-source media graphics project is now online. Please visit the promotional materials section on our website and check out the promotional materials section.
Open-source media graphics are intended to be used, distributed and collaborated on by any and all who wish to do so. If you need flyers or posters for your event, need designs to print on DVD, or would like a design for a t-shirt, just browse the graphics section and download the item/s that appeal to you – free of charge. If you would like to contribute your own designs that’s great – we’re always keen to collaborate!
Warning – there are some imposter websites online that provide such graphics for a fee – please do not endorse these as TZM AU endeavours, wherever possible, to eliminate the use for money, and therefore does not charge for services that can be provided for free.
Systems Design Studio
The last weekend of April presented a rare opportunity for the Zeitgeist Movement’s Australian chapter to attend a systems design studio in which a number of alternative systems models were showcased. The Resource-Based Economic Model was presented alongside PROUT, otherwise known as Progressive Utilization Theory, Richard Mochelle’s ethics-based Priocracy, George Trembath’s RBE-like Pachacuti, and Richard Sanders’ highly scientific and pragmatic “What the World Tells Us” model.
The weekend-long studio, held at Crystal Waters in tropical Queensland, was a collaborative event intended to bring systems thinkers together with a view to putting some of the ideas into the petri-dish for experimentation and analysis. The possibility of a practical collaborative alliance looks promising, so expect more news over the coming months!
Media-Watch
97% Owned
A new documentary that reveals how money is at the root of our current social and economic crisis 97% Owned shows how the power to create money is the piece of the puzzle that economists were missing when they failed to predict the crisis. This brave documentary is the first to tackle this issue from a UK-perspective, and can be watched free online: http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/97percent-owned-documentary/
Owned and Operated is a Crackin’ good documentary produced by an open-source collaborative organization called Crackin Films. Featuring The Occupy Movement, Anonymous, The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project, the film attempts to weave a picture of the world as it is today and the direction it’s heading right now. Owned and Operated also attempts to demonstrate the potential prosperity the future holds for us, if we just open our eyes and collectively work toward this.
Released on 15th of April 2012 this project was assembled almost entirely out of socially conscious footage and images found online. Crackin Films functions as a media project portal that is attempting to bring together activist-minded creative professionals to collaborate on not-for-profit, awareness-building media projects.
The One Planet Project kicks off in Australia in May, taking to the streets with global issues surveys in order to raise awareness of both the issues that threaten our planet, economy, and society, and the potential solutions. Look out for TZM volunteers in a high-street near you and don’t hesitate to engage us in chat!
If you are interested in taking part in the One Planet Project but are not a member of any chapter drop us a line and we’ll chat about getting you started with a campaign pack.
May’s Monthly Movie that Matters
This month’s movie that Matters is Gasland – Josh Fox’s expose of fracking, one of the greatest environmental threats of our time. If you would like to host a screening of Gasland on behalf of TZM AU please register online and you will soon receive a support package to enable your screening to be a success.
Freeshare Events and Community Lunch & Busy-Bees
If you would like to host a Freeshare Event or Community Lunch & Busy-Bee in order to facilitate the move away from money and re-connect with the spirit of your community please register online to receive a TZM AU support package that will help you to make the event a success.
Project Teams
TZM AU have a host of ongoing projects that need your support. If you are skilled in webpage development, graphic design, media editing, writing, researching, or have linguistic skills please give some thought to helping out with a project that suits your skills-set and interests. if you have a little time to donate we’d be only too happy to have your support! If you are interested in helping out with any of our project teams check out the volunteering section of our website and sign-up to register your interest.
Chapter Coordination
As always we are looking to extend the reach of the Movement so that we can get the message of a sustainable future out there in all parts of the world. Recently chapters have sprung into action in Malaysia and Singapore, and Thailand and China have activity building. Australia leads the way in the Asia-Pacific region with 10 chapters around the country, and a steadily increasing base of supporters. If you’d like to see TZM action in your part of the country and feel you can be part of a coordination team drop us a line and we’ll walk you through the paces of a chapter start-up.
How we Advocate the Zeitgeist Movement
An inspiring YouTube vid from some international collaborators, have a look at “How we Advocate the Zeitgeist Movement”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERvkaGWnamE. It’s a good little reminder of how we need to be the change and find ways in which we can advocate for it. We each have skills and interests that can be applied to being the change, we just need to find ways to apply them, and work towards that end. No more shall we be mere recipients of change, demanding what is never really fulfilled – we have to be active participants if we’re to get anywhere at all. Food for thought anyone?
Related, but non-TZM, news
A new way – the Plentitude Economy…
How does our culture of consumerism actually undermine our well-being? What does the post-consumer society actually look like? How is it happening today? Check out these two short animations by psychologist Tim Kasser and economist Juliet Schor from the Center for a New American Dream.
If you want to know more about living simply in an Australian context, check out The Simplicity Collective
Nuclear arms… still not cool!
Your Dollar is your vote… but who is the government voting for with your money?You may remember media reports in May last year stating that the Government’s Future Fund is investing in foreign companies that manufacture or maintain nuclear weapons. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) released a position paper stating that this included investments worth A$135.4 million in 15 foreign-owned companies involved in the manufacture of US, British, French and Indian nuclear weapons.
On April 3rd, ICAN members staged a street protest at the Future Fund’s headquarters in Melbourne to call on the fund’s new chair David Gonski to stop these investment which contravene Australia’s international agreements.Have your say. Hold our government to account for spending your tax dollars. Say enough to this insanity. Sign the petition to Mr Gonski as part of the Getup campaign , and sign a second petition to Penny Wong, minister for finance and deregulation. A full report on Nuclear Weapon companies and financiers can be found at Don’t Bank on the Bomb.
Place: Community Meeting Room, Ground Floor, Brisbane Square Library.
This meeting is open to members of the public as well as those who support the Zeitgeist Movement to come along and be introduced to the Movement, it’s tenets and volunteers, and then go into some issues in greater depth. This month, the focus will be on establishing alternative communities and systems embedded into the existing one that are aimed at bringing about a humane future for all.
The Community Meeting Room is located on the ground floor between the escalators. Please beware the library closes at 3pm making it difficult to enter late. Free parking on Victoria Street can be found, otherwise there are reasonable rates under the Myer Centre; enter from Elizabeth Street.
Please forward this event notice to those you think may be interested such as friends, family, associates and colleagues.
This will be a casual meeting to raise awareness of The Zeitgeist Movement and socialize with like minded people. There is no chapter in Byron Bay at this time, however if this meeting is successful and there is public interest there may be a Byron Bay Chapter established.
Depending on numbers and what people want, we will either screen ‘Owned and Operated’ or The Zeitgeist Movement’s Orientation Guild followed by Q+A and discussion
Hope to see you there!
Date: Sunday 6th of May
Time: 2pm-4pm (possibly longer if we’re showing a film)
Address: 6 Electra Close Byron Bay NWS 2481
My contact details are: email – zacsyme {at} hotmail(.)com, Phone Number – 0430 216 150
Venue: The Exeter Hotel, Rundle Street, Adelaide CBD
Social get-together at Adelaide’s favourite activists’ pub. Come along and meet the team, discuss important global issues and solutions, and get answers to your TZM-related questions.
If you can’t make it for 2:30 no worries – just come along when you can. If it’s not immediately obvious where we are just ask at the bar and they’ll direct you to us.
One Planet Project
Date: Wednesday 9th May
Time: TBA
Venue: Adelaide CBD
In the second week of May TZM Adelaide is taking to the streets with the One Planet Project – a streets-awareness campaign designed to survey local understandings of global issues and connect with our locals on their terms.
Look our for us in the CBD and feel free to approach the team with your questions!
Public forum hosted by Just Sustainability Australia and the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at UniSA:
The Rising Tides of Climate Change - The Challenge to Prepare
Date: Wednesday 9th May
Time: arrive 5:30 for 6pm start
Venue: University of South Australia, City West Campus, Allan Scott Auditorium, rear Hawke Building, 50-55 North Terrace
Informed perspectives on preparing for climate change from Dr MA Quassem – Chairman, National Disaster Management Advisory Committee, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Professor Fran Baum – director of the Southgate Institute of Health, Society and Equity, and Brian Caton, and expert on sea-level rise generally and locally.
Planning meeting
Date: Wednesday 16th May
Time: 6-8pm
Venue: Adelaide University Student Learning Hub
Planning meeting – focusing mainly on planning for August’s Z-media festival – a collaboration of local sustainability-oriented organizations and groups over issues of global importance.
Please come along if you would like to take part in planning this event, but understand that this is not a social or orientation meeting – questions regarding the Movement in general can be addressed following the business-bit!
Public lecture: The Steady State Economy, by Dr Geoff Mosley, author of Steady State: Alternative to Endless Economic Growth
Date: Saturday 19th May
Time: 2pm – 4pm
Venue: Conservation Council of SA Meeting Room, 1st floor of 157 Franklin Street, Adelaide CBD
Geoff Mosley’s talk will focus on the generally neglected question of what a viable steady state alternative to the prevailing economic growth model would be like. In particular he will pinpoint the changes to our present system which could hasten the transformation. He will explain how we will need to incorporate measures in the transition to deal with the damage to the environment already caused. The changes he will advocate cover every major aspect of life including values, institutions for governance, social and trade relationships and the use of physical resources including energy. Geoff is a former CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation and the current Australian Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
Owing to limited seating capacity those intending to attend are advised to make an advance booking either by emailing: hermann {at} chariot.net(.)au or calling: 08 8264 4282.
No need to book in, but please arrive by 6pm to ensure a seat and a prompt start. The screening will be followed by Q&A and a chance to gather further information regarding the Zeitgeist Movement and our actions on global issues.
The Sunshine Coast Zeitgeist Movement will hold our next meeting on Friday, 27th April, 2012.
TZM Sunshine Coast are happy to announce a meeting this Friday to coincide with the visit by the TZM Australia Coordinators David and Kari. They and Tamara, a very active member of the Adelaide Chapter, are coming to the coast to participate in an academic forum discussing and contrasting different economic models so, to take advantage of this visit, we are holding a special meeting on Friday morning.
This will be a great opportunity to ask questions and find out what other chapters in Australia are doing and what is happening in the wider world.
Though it is an unusual time and fairly short notice, we hope you can come along and participate in what it sure to be an informative and interesting day.
For those of you who are able, I would also urge you to attend a meeting they are holding in Brisbane the day before (see the post below this one)
