Mayor's column: The quiet joy of being one with nature

Whitebaiting in the Waitohu Stream.

Weekly column by Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan.

Early Saturday morning and they have staked out their strategic positions along the mouth of the Waitohu Stream.

They, and their fishing nets, wait for the rising tide to bring in their harvest of whitebait. Each fisher, in silence, surfing their own thoughts. As the tide moves up, the whitebaiters scuttle like crabs upstream repositioning their nets.

Lance, a nearby resident and pensioner, has been coming here for 15 years. Like many others, Lance does it not only to catch this Kiwi delicacy to feed the family and share with friends, but also for the experience of being at one with the environment.

Over the years, as a journalist covering this seasonal story, I have interviewed scores of whitebaiters. There are those who are just focused on the lucrative catch but most, especially if you press into what occupies their minds when they wait, will reveal the quiet joy of being one with nature.

The dance of salty wind and sand, the sound of the incoming tide riding over the outgoing current of the stream, and the gulls screaming overhead. It's a form of healing social isolation from the worries of the world.

The question, one supposes, is how do we make this healing social isolation a sustainable one available for future generations?

Being aware that the whitebait species numbers are themselves in decline and in danger of extinction from environmental degradation and overfishing in some parts.

Last year, Parliament passed the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill. More than 11,000 submissions were made with DoC expected to make its recommendations to the new government. This healing social isolation grounded in rebirthing our relationship with the natural environment comes with social and political responsibilities.

These spaces are essential mental health places. The way we design our communities, its roading connections, wastewater, stormwater and drinking water systems must be shaped by its impact on the environment.

Talking of healing social isolation and our political responsibilities, in more recent weeks I have posed a question to people I have met: do they think Trump or Biden will win.

Yesterday being November 3 was D-day for the American people's decision on this. The US election is not only important to them but to New Zealand and the rest of the world. Climate change is the major existential threat to all of us.

The Trump administration is causing long term damage for short term financial gain for the American elites and in turn giving other countries a good excuse to also pursue their own short term self interest.

This self seeking interest is replicated in the Trump administration's foreign policy where the collective checks and balances of multilateralism has been abandoned in favour of a US-first policy. This is leading to global economic dislocation and undermines the ability of small nations like New Zealand to secure a level trading ground.

A multilateral approach also means greater co-operation for global security where the Trump approach is to devalue diplomacy and increasingly opening up crisis points and the potential of war. Lastly, the reaction of the Trump administration to the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled similar denial and conspiracy theories which have potentially put lives at risk in New Zealand.

Biden needs to win. It's as simple as that but all the experts on US politics and elections have been reluctant to make a clear call.

Bitten by the 2016 elections when Hilary Clinton won a majority of the popular vote only to lose the Electoral College (group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to elect the president) to Trump.

The experts are saying the polls seem to indicate a Biden win. But qualify this with a you-never-can-tell with someone like Trump get out of jail card. For me, I prefer to firmly grasp a faith in the ability of Americans to know right from wrong.