Posts by Jolisa
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra's first music video! Made by Tim Capper, filmed in Deluxe, starring half of Wellington.
-
Nine out of ten doctors write with a fountain pen.
(God knows what the other pervert does with it.)
-
(Rachel: nice profile of your man Malcolm in New York magazine).
-
A thought: US + 10 parallels NZ
Somebody go scour the law schools and the streets of South Auckland for our Obama, then...
-
The determined creation of wealth, as opposed to the genuine welfare of the populace or the environment, is the ideology we now seem yoked to.
I did rather get this impression from Key's victory speech, in which "better" seemed synonymous with "richer." It would be nice if we could manage both - generate wealth to improve welfare - but that's not the sense I was getting. "Safer, more prosperous, more ambitious" -- there's an aggressively acquisitive vibe to the vision; at least that's how I read the triumphant squawk of "This is not as good as it gets!"
Key's childhood anecdote about riding his bike past the homes of "more fortunate children" spoke volumes. He means richer children in bigger, fancier houses. Which doesn't automatically mean luckier, better or happier children. He had a bike. He had a bloody hard-working mother who bought him that bike. He had the brains to get where he wanted to go via state schooling and a bit of ambition. He was a pretty fortunate little dude, if you ask me. And I trust he's paid his Mum back in kind.
I'm not opposed to a better standard of living, but it has to be about more than the contents of your wallet. Plus, arguably, even if you could transform everyone into happy, fortunate, upper-middle-class consumers riding a rising tide of ambition and prosperity, would you want to? What happens to that "beautiful scenery" when everyone wants a luxury beachfront bach? Where would your yearning, ambitious, PM wanna-be state-house strivers come from?
Clogs to clogs in three generations, though, eh.
-
It would seem that New Zealand's long national nightmare of peace of prosperity is finally over.
That Onion article is a classic. So funny at the time, and in retrospect... ouch.
Ironically (or not) I woke up to hear the NZ election results being reported on NPR this morning in more or less the same terms. The correspondent (from the BBC, that central purveyor of all news Commonwealth) all but said "New Zealand voters, who have rocks in their heads..." I'll see if I can find the link.
Off to watch the Key/Clark speeches on YouTube. There will be no cupcakes today.
-
Here are some pictures to unharsh the mellow - backstage and close-up photos of election night, taken by campaign photographer David Katz and posted on Flickr.
Some favourites: news sinking in, "You did it, Dad!", best smile ever, great couple, and the moms!
-
Judith Warner in the NY Times has a nice analysis of the tears, too.
For me, this will be the enduring memory of election night 2008: One generation released its grief. The next looked up confusedly, eager to please and yet unable to comprehend just what the tears were about.
-
The Africa thing is tragic; apparently she thought "South Africa" was, like, a suburb or a province of Africa proper and was surprised to find out it was its own country, and that there were other ones too. But to be fair, she can't see Africa from Alaska, so how would she know?
But NAFTA? There's a giant flippin' CLUE in the middle of that one. North America Free Trade Agreement. You could at least take a guess on that one. Especially if you can see one of them from your house.
-
Hey, Veronica, don't rain on our parade, man. Even teh kittez are happy.
Just call me Marianne Dashwood.
Yours ever, Pollyanna.