Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: White in Brighton

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  • Joe Wylie,

    Do you know where you can get a decent Rendang that does not look and taste like an Indian curry?

    Afraid I'm a vego, so can't really help there. The years I spent living within walking distance of the esteemed Istana in Freemans Bay rather spoiled me for NZ attempts at masakan Indonesia.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    @Islander: No doubt they articulate it well. I'm not going to deny this is the case -- but I don't necessarily see it. To paraphrase Franz Fenon, if you live in a white context you don't feel your race like minorities.... Its probably the same re school background -- though I've never witnessed any friend of mine talking in negative terms about people from other backgrounds being no good or not socializing with people from different schools, etc. I'll take their word for it.

    @Just Thinking: I haven't lived here for 6 years. I've really noticed a difference in the place. Sol Square, etc, didn't exist.

    I'd like to read more about the Maori House/best suburbs thing. That sounds ridiculous - can you PM me a reference to that doc? Is it available online?

    Lebensraum... yeh... that's kind of a sick joke.

    I read in an article a couple of weeks back that the Brits built the gardens to keep the Scots at arms length. Sounds ridiculous but would be amusing (in retrospect) if it's true.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    ChCh PAS readers all live within a suburb or two of the Uni

    No they don't.

    people from ChCh think they live in a city

    And now you know what I think based on where I live...

    They persist with the whole “first four ships” and “what school did you go to?” crap.

    ...not what I say, which you don't appear to be able to hear. So there's not a lot of point in me continuing to talk.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Water pollution probbably is the most serious under Bowrons tannery & around Woolston.

    Our use of artesian water is not sustainable at our current level of consumption, regardless of dirty dairying.

    We need to harvest our own rainfall for domestic use and onsite composting. I'm no-where near that.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Rendang that does not look and taste like an Indian curry?

    In Auckland, KKs in Greenlane seem to be about the only folks who can do one that would pass muster in your Warung Desa, tapi tak parkai RW.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    So yes - there are nasty racists up and down the country. But stabbing an Afghani taxi driver is such a quintessential Christchurch crime. I think it’s because it’s only in Christchurch that the notion of a hierarchy with white English-bred people on top has been so blatantly nurtured for decades by the local middle-class and media. It’s no wonder that the more bone-headed citizens seek to cement their own place in that hierarchy by picking on victims who are decidedly “other”. They just want to be loved.

    Perhaps you'd like to apply your talent for incisive generalisation to the case of the schoolgirl who was abducted from Eastgate mall and raped by a Samoan who'd recently arrived in the country. She wasn't, as far as I'm aware, his only victim, and despite being a promising student the trauma of her experience drove her to suicide. While she wasn't Samoan herself, a number of her schoolfriends were. The way the kids involved have dealt with the tragedy has been a humbling thing to witness.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Jogging Solo

    http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/southern_capital.shtml

    It is really good, about half of the Canty Uni History Lecturers contributed.

    Christchurch History is very contested and slowly being rewritten.

    Puari Pa that covered the Arts Centre to Town hall area of Christchurch, is being questioned as to its validity. That bones were being uncovered during the Art Gallery development doesn't phase these critics.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    @Simon Anjing! Belum.... tapi kapan saya di Manado ... munkin.

    @Just thinking Thanks. I really should read more ChCh history. Enjoyed McNeish's 'Mckenzie' recently.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    Marian Maguire

    Wow.

    Thanks Gio, made my week.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    I visited New Brighton last week, having previously been there in 1993. The main street does have a weird ghost town feel to it. Surely it can't just have been the end of its uniqueness of having Saturday trading that killed the shops?

    But what really got me about New Brighton was the pier. It's a massive concrete structure, and all you can do it walk down it and fish off it.

    There's also a sort of concrete ramp that leads up to it, which, even though it's new, strangely has the feeling of a decaying monument from a failed dictatorship. Like there was a time in the recent past where New Brighton was the centre of the universe, and now, suddenly, it's not.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Thanks Gio, made my week.

    I don't know why I said it was OT, it's in fact perfectly pertinent. It's got dates all over the place but nothing in Christchurch for a while by the looks.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    Having now seen the original beachside piers in Blackpool and Eastbourne in all their glory I am actually rather thankful that New Brighton has decided to go for something new, concrete and spartan. I don't think the lack of a decrepit pub, ramschackle fun fair and a suspicious looking chip shop really is much of a loss to New Brighton.

    Also, I work around Croydon in south London/Surrey area and it seems that whomever drew up the the plans for Christchurch was fond of these parts, if the regular buses to Shirley, Addington Village or Sumner are anything to go by.

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    tapi kapan saya di Manado

    Orang-orang Bali suka dan makan anjing juga. Tetapi mereka tidak menceritakan touris! Kemarin di Denpasar..

    [Sorry....talking about the partiality of certain parts of Indonesia to man's best friend as food, particularly the people of Manado and Bali (who don't admit it, amongst many things, to tourists).]

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    Robyn, that concrete ramp is great for wheelchair users - wide and with careful gradient. So often with council developments accessibility issues are an add-on (or with the private sector ignored ). Possibly having Graham Condon on the council at the time helped.

    We also went to Governors Bay (Shechocolate worth visiting) and Akaroa. Very pretty but not wheelchair friendly places.

    Interesting hearing all these opinions of Christchurch as we were brought up with my mother's stories of her grandparents - one set on the hill and the other on the flat - and the underlying class issues.

    Final comment - the Dux DeLux must be one of the best restaurants for vegetarians in the country - never disappoints.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    The Pier has a few unforseen issues.
    The fisher men and bait everywhere and their urinating off it.

    There has been a focus on cobble stones to beautify pedestrian areas. Pretty but these uneven surfaces exclude those who are unsteady on their feet, alzheimers, elderly, etc & so our new expensive public spaces are excluding those who would benefit from them the most as a social area.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    (Waltham Sydenham Wigram Brighton-on-Sea Linwood Riccarton Spreydon Are All In The South; It's Grim Down South)

    Massive respect.

    For those who didn't get the reference:

    JS - you point out that a lot of the poorer people in Wellington are out in Porirua and the Hutt. Fair point, but it's overstating the case. One of the things I like about the WCC is the deliberate policy of maintaining small patches of council housing in the inner suburbs, in an attempt to prevent ghettoisation. So, while you're right about the Aro Valley being massively gentrified, it still also has a large block of council flats right at the foot of Brooklyn Hill. I'd be surprised if anyone in Wellington City lived more than 2k from the nearest block of council accomodation.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    Thanks Solo Jogging. I've been biting my lip.
    It's very odd how everyone else in the country knows the city much better than those of us who live here.
    Or, since we are all violent bogan racists from spoon-fed old-boys-club schools, perhaps not so odd ;)

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    Orang-orang Bali suka dan makan anjing juga. Tetapi mereka tidak menceritakan touris! Kemarin di Denpasar..

    My number 2 chief hate in regards to Bali (after drunk Australians) is all the damn dogs everywhere. Especially around Ubud. I hope they eat them all before my next visit.

    @Hilary & @just thinking

    It's grand to hear that the Pier has been built in consideration of those who benefit the most from public spaces, eg. those "unsteady on their feet", the elderly with alzheimers, etc!

    LOL.

    I am, however, a little concerned that all those people with alzheimers who make such great use of social spaces may, ironically, suffer from improved access to it: being so easy to shuffle down, what's to stop them from all going over the end like lemmings, only to be urinated on by uncouth fishermen?

    Perhaps the Pier should be cobbled in their interests? In a compensatory gesture, we could fence of the Square and tile it with sponge exercise mats, so that the city's elderly alzheimers patients - those "who benefit most from the use of public spaces" - can lurch around and into each other at will like bumper cars without breaking any hips.

    In regard to Christchurch's class issues... I am going to play devil's advocate and argue that the existence of a self-conscious, self-appointed elite of old families with English surnames actively discriminating against people who missed the first four ships is a fiction. There is old money in the city, and the McKenzie's and co still for the most part rule the High Country, but I don't believe those families collude to oppress the rest of Canterbury as some of the posters seem to be suggesting.

    ...But then again, perhaps I am a disinformation agent of the double-barreled bourgeois, terrified that you may be all too close to exposing our secret underground club in the catacombs beneath Christ's College, where powerful genetic inbreds indulge in their penchant for ritual sodomy while dressed in 19th Century British naval uniforms on a full moon?

    Christchurch serves a psychological function/purpose in the national consciousness. I wish someone would write a white paper on it.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    indulge in their penchant for ritual sodomy while dressed in 19th Century British naval uniforms on a full moon?

    There is no way you're going to convince me that doesn't happen here.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    OK, we get it - ChCh PAS readers all live within a suburb or two of the Uni, and gee there are some great noodle houses around now...

    Demonstrably pretentious bullshit. On stilts.

    st ephen & Keir Leslie - you've articulated it.
    Which is why almost all of mine, and me, have left the place.

    Worst thing about Christchurch? The orgy of fear-and-loathing self-congratulatory smugness that the mere mention of the place provokes. So Keir saw a swastika tatt when visiting a city of 375,000-odd souls and had to have a wee lie down afterwards? The poor dear.

    Islander pefers the Rousseauian swamps of a dubious yesteryear to the continued existence of thousands of her fellow citizens, regardless of their potential to make this world a better place? Have fun, but don't expect to be taken seriously.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    @Joe

    Islander pefers the Rousseauian swamps of a dubious yesteryear to the continued existence of thousands of her fellow citizens, regardless of their potential to make this world a better place? Have fun, but don't expect to be taken seriously.

    Here Here!

    @Emma

    indulge in their penchant for ritual sodomy while dressed in 19th Century British naval uniforms on a full moon?

    There is no way you're going to convince me that doesn't happen here.

    If that's the case then - Here Here! It would certainly add to the enviable diversity of opinion & cultural practice that the city enjoys!

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Or you could try hear, hear. Don't mean to be a pain, but it's like the twelfth time I've come across it this week. I think you're all wilfully trying to confuse me.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    This thread increasingly feels like PAS at its worst, not sure why.

    Can't we go back to shaking our heads at Michael Laws?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    ..But then again, perhaps I am a disinformation agent of the double-barreled bourgeois, terrified that you may be all too close to exposing our secret underground club in the catacombs beneath Christ's College, where powerful genetic inbreds indulge in their penchant for ritual sodomy while dressed in 19th Century British naval uniforms on a full moon?

    Speaking of Christs Col, the "Auckland Grammar Nazis" reminded me of far too many yobbos I encountered at that place. An inverse proportional relationship between the size of their wallets and their intellectualism.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Hosking,

    Rendang that does not look and taste like an Indian curry?

    Satay Palace in Cuba St, Wellington, does a good one. The place itself looks a bit basic but their rendang is the best I've had.

    Apart from my home made ones, of course...

    South Roseneath • Since Nov 2006 • 830 posts Report Reply

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