An icon from folklore and an environmental menace or so the story goes concerning the brumpys that live up in our snow country.
This discussion which is on a continuous loop is really about the threat of the ‘wild’ whether that is horse rabbit blackberry dog or Women. There is an argument that the brumpys were never truly wild creatures in the first place but came to wildness thru escaping domestication, hence feral animals and as such have no rights.
It is said their hooves impact negatively upon the fragile soil systems of this ancient land promoting weed invasion tree death, degrading the sphagnum moss beds, reducing native vegetation and damaging the communities of reptiles mammals birds and fishes.
Culling is one answer by shooting or trapping and named a humane slaughter. It is all about ‘manageable proportions’. Rehoming and moving them out of ‘sensitive areas’ is talked about. Currently Victoria plans to kill them and across the border NSW is thinking of protecting them.
Put frankly this is ‘a snow job.’ A snow job according to the Cambridge dictionary “ is an attempt to persuade someone to do something, or to persuade someone that something is good or true, when it is not.”
According to the Wilderness Society bulldozers clear half a million hectares of forest and bush every year in this country alone – encouraging invasive weed infestations and drier conditions, greater threat of fires, degrading the mosses creek river systems, causing soil erosion, destroying communities of reptile’s mammals birds fishes.
This clearing also releases stored carbon into our already overloaded atmosphere. An atmosphere that now has CO2 at 400 parts per million. For this impact the bulldozer is not held responsible.
The cow with its heavy hoofs is free to advance all over the fragile soils of our ancient land because it is domesticated and part of the primary production team.
We are up to our ears in snow jobs. They are spun from the mouths of government and corporations holding anything ‘wild’ accountable and selling a story to confirm this idea all the while ignoring human led greed and rape of the planet . Shoot the brumby the dingo the kangaroo, poison the rabbit the blackberry the willow –domesticate and medicate the women and the children.
Despite repeated beatings the Wild continues to Be. Inherent within the wildness is a deep connection to nature and earth and spirit. It is in the wild that our hearts breathe our minds open and our bodies relax – it is also the space where creative imaginative possibilities of living with the Earth reside.
I am not in denial about the impact made by introduced species, merely the distortion by which it is agreed that ‘some’ of the invaders are the ones responsible and thus can be killed while we and our corporate machine world make ski resorts in the very mountains in which the wild horses run.
Much as I like to simplify I understand it is complex – we have gone so far down the rabbit hole without a ladder that we cannot climb back out.
And yet some humans are climbing out climbing in taking stock and creating new ways of commerce of agriculture of community of living life with rather than on planet Earth..
It is important to take the time to be energised by each other, to learn how others are managing the challenges of living life, to be inspired by creative lateral and kindly endeavours and to know that as we serve we are not alone.
4 thoughts on “we are up to our ears in snow jobs”
I’m very familiar with the term and yes, our poiticians do it all the time. I think when there is a problem the solution is often to deflect or to brush it off or to focus our attention elsewhere. It’s easier to zoom in on the brumbies than it is to deal with land clearance or stock farming. So many things we’ve done to the land, some can’t be helped but others could definitely be managed – like the live sheep trade debacle and the sharks and…..
Hi Leanne , I am visiting my dad in NZ , he is 91 and we have been talking about the difficulty we the human have in seeing our selves and our actions clearly without attributing to others – and no matter how much we may be told about our selves it seems that we cannot hear or feel into it until we actually see clearly within . despite all the snow jobs it is a richly creative and wonderful world .
Snow jobs … I haven’t heard this term before. May all creatures be spared. May we all live in harmony. Thanks Sandra for the links, I know Charles Eisenstein and Muhammad Yunus but Konda Mason not – but I’ll check the links.
Hi Susan, some say it originated with american forces during WW11 but others suggest it is earlier then this – certainly the idea of getting snowed under is in common use here -is it that a blanket covering of snow hides what is really underneath- generally known as a deceitful practice ,a bombardment ( propoaganda) of arguements that overwhelm and persuade covering up the truth of the matter. from children – the dog ate my homework to politicians – another coal powered station will not have any affect …
I’m very familiar with the term and yes, our poiticians do it all the time. I think when there is a problem the solution is often to deflect or to brush it off or to focus our attention elsewhere. It’s easier to zoom in on the brumbies than it is to deal with land clearance or stock farming. So many things we’ve done to the land, some can’t be helped but others could definitely be managed – like the live sheep trade debacle and the sharks and…..
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Hi Leanne , I am visiting my dad in NZ , he is 91 and we have been talking about the difficulty we the human have in seeing our selves and our actions clearly without attributing to others – and no matter how much we may be told about our selves it seems that we cannot hear or feel into it until we actually see clearly within . despite all the snow jobs it is a richly creative and wonderful world .
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Snow jobs … I haven’t heard this term before. May all creatures be spared. May we all live in harmony. Thanks Sandra for the links, I know Charles Eisenstein and Muhammad Yunus but Konda Mason not – but I’ll check the links.
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Hi Susan, some say it originated with american forces during WW11 but others suggest it is earlier then this – certainly the idea of getting snowed under is in common use here -is it that a blanket covering of snow hides what is really underneath- generally known as a deceitful practice ,a bombardment ( propoaganda) of arguements that overwhelm and persuade covering up the truth of the matter. from children – the dog ate my homework to politicians – another coal powered station will not have any affect …
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