A wise man once said to me that it’s easier to be thick-skinned than to have a thin skin. I have thin skin. So things that don’t bother other people, bother me. One such thing’s the word ‘greenie’. It bothered me when I wrote this post last 19 September. And it still does. Whenever I hear or read the word ‘greenie’ (or ‘greenies’), it triggers a reflex reaction in me. I ask myself ‘Why does this person need to use a disparaging word? And what advantage is this person seeking to gain by unfair means?’ This item in last Thursday’s Age triggered the reflex. The headline was telltale, of course. Ker’s article reminded me of this post I wrote 15 months ago. According to Urban Taskforce Australia: be damned with society’s checks and balances; and ignore the vast resource disparity between citizens, and corporations let alone governments. UTA’s website reveals it’s a property developers’ and equity financiers’ lobby group. It mission’s shown in the graphic. Note the order of its list of four mission items. Another tell. And what’s ‘efficient planning’, anyway? The UTA reeks of self interest – which its opponents could never be accused of. Finally, Ker’s article’s an uncritical regurgitation of UTA’s media release. No doubt it’s inefficient for him to get comment from a ‘greenie’ or ‘extreme environment group’. And he’s the Age’s environment reporter. Ho hum.
