Hard News: Still crazy after all these years
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Gracias PM
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Maybe this is what Sacha was referring to as "anonymous"
Yes - perhaps "multiply pseudonymous" might have been the better term, but that wasn't my prime concern. I hope the other thread shows why I was wary of minimising Kurariki's culpability if the arguments head down the same path - quote marks and all.
just those who we have decided are our celebrity monsters
Media certainly focusing tabloidishly on him compared with others, no question.
are you saying that he doesn't deserve meaningful attempts at rehabilitation, nor a right to privacy?
Not at all. Clarifying that he has acted deviantly, not been somehow abstractly labelled as such by society. There are others who deserve far more of your sympathy and attention than this guy.
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Not at all. Clarifying that he has acted deviantly, not been somehow abstractly labelled as such by society. There are others who deserve far more of your sympathy and attention than this guy.
That seems a peculiarly un-Sacha like thing to say, if you don't mind me saying so. Kurariki did what he did when he was twelve. He then received a double sentence - a prison term, very lenghty by international standards for a child his age if I recall correctly - and then the sentence of the media attention that will accompany him for some years yet. Failed first by his family, then by corrections, forever hounded by the media, what chances is he getting exactly *not* to act deviantly would you say?
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Not at all. Clarifying that he has acted deviantly, not been somehow abstractly labelled as such by society. There are others who deserve far more of your sympathy and attention than this guy.
I don't think it's a competition. And I do feel sorry for Bailey Junior Kurariki.
The whole bloody thing seems desperately sad to me.
Not aiming at you (at all) Sacha, but I've been surprised by how many people I know who have implicitly declared Kurariki a "bad seed". Yet everything he's done since release has looked socially dysfunctional to me. It's not like he's done a William Bell. He's flipped out with his girlfriend, and allegedly done some scary and inappropriate things in the presence of reporters, but I don't know I'd call him undeserving of sympathy. I'd save that for the big jobs.
I'm with Gio: if this was the best the system could do, its pretty fucking awful.
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I unhappily agree that Kurariki has been failed by whanau and the system BUT
there are plenty of young people who are in vile environments and DONT take part in a robbery that led to a young man's death.
The robbery wasnt done because the offenders were hungry: it wasnt a spur-of-the-moment job either.
Taking media attention off this man -now- isnt going to help him reform. Possibly nothing will help him now. I find the media-salivation over his life unpleasant, salacious, cheap. But the fact that Kurariki took part in an evil deed wasnt the fault of the media. And nothing that has come to public attention indicates that he has shown remorse for the death of a young working bloke. All the angst about contemptible media isnt going to bring him back.
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Sigh. I was responding to the theme in Martin's piece that Kurariki is a victim akin to a caged animal, notably this para:
The media today is treating Bailey Kurariki like that gorilla I remember so strongly from my childhood. Unfortunately, it is easy for journos and editors to treat people like exhibits arraigned behind thick glass for our entertainment. This is especially true of anyone deemed to be deviant [ie: deviating from social norms] and Junior Kurariki has been so deemed.
I accept the failings of our jail and rehab systems especially for such a young person, but I have to question what the Milwaukee gorilla did to end up in his cage?
Kurariki is far from innocent and many other people and groups are labelled deviant by media without actually doing anything, let alone harming others. The word "deemed" was my trigger.
That's all I was saying - trying to stop this going down the previous path of blaming others for his actions and enabling more "acting up without remonstration". I agree he seems hounded now and that he's done his time for the original offense.
I suspect the media were entranced by the contradiction between the baby face and the reported thuggish swagger, and they're still not seeing him clearly. I'm over talking about the guy.
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Sacha, fine last words, thanks.
EM -
Thank you, Martin - not meant as an attack in any way, and very much conditional on that previous thread as local context.
As you know, one of the groups routinely stigmatised in what little media coverage we get is disabled people. I'd far rather see energies go into improving that when major social and media institutions are paying so little attention. Thanks for your efforts already in that direction.
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Hey, well we had fun. Shame you'll couldn't make it.
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You picked a greeaat day for it.. day for it
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As you know, one of the groups routinely stigmatised in what little media coverage we get is disabled people.
The media treatment that (ex-)prisoners and beneficiaries get in this country is nothing short of a disgrace. As a parent of an ASD child, I'd like to see that get the full attention it deserves, thank you very much. It's not my cause against theirs, for heaven's sake.
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I respect your stake in this, but unless you think there are unlimited media resources then frankly, yes, there is competition for public attention.
I'm hoping we can use online to change that (one of my focuses this year), but traditional media and policy channels still shape too much discussion - or lack of it.
However, the resources could cover all those areas you mention - so long as we can persuade those in control to ignore some others instead.
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I respect your stake in this, but unless you think there are unlimited media resources then frankly, yes, there is competition for attention.
In that case I'd have to say that their needs are more pressing and their cause more urgent, as it goes far closer to the core of what we mean by a just society. If we could change that, other things would fall into line, including the sometime unfair treatment of the disabled community.
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If only fair access was purely about justice. However, we can agree those are all groups of people whose lives and potential we systematically waste.
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That we can.
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And, is it just the dreadful primate instinct to pick on the different, and the weaker, or actually something that is media-driven? Because the media feeds on what sells their crap. And who buys their crap? Us primates-
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I believe that noticing difference and responding tribally is understandably primate - but it's what we choose to do with those impulses that reveal our humanity. We know deep down we're better than that.
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Yup.
I'd call it being civilised (in the best possible way- learning from our past, determined to be more compassionate & humane.)We do not have a civilised media -in general- in ANZ.Though the ODT can come pretty slose, a lot of the time...*
*disclosure: I have nothing to do with the ODT except it is now the only MSM I buy regularly-
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We do not have a civilised media -in general- in ANZ.Though the ODT can come pretty slose, a lot of the time...*
*disclosure: I have nothing to do with the ODT except it is now the only MSM I buy regularly-
Another stand you can make is to browse your local news webs with an ad-blocker turned on. Works for me.
Any ideas for further steps?
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Any ideas for further steps?
make high school kids study every episode of 'the wire' and shame on all y'all if you haven't seen it.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Movies-TV/DVDs/TV-series/auction-280085919.htm
Series 5 is rather apt, where due to cutbacks and falling readership an unscrupulous reporter manufactures the news and puts himself at the center of the story while a cop takes the law into his own hands.
and series 4, where they institute 'no child left behind/national standards' to a group of tweenies as the actual teenagers are too far damaged and jaded to be rehabilitated
or series 3, where the alternative to wasting time policing drugs at street level is to 'legalise' them by turning a blind eye and concentrating on hard crime further up the chain
series 2, where well intentioned dockers union officials bribe local politicians for favours that never happen while international big money dealers get a free pass to import slaves and drugs.
and finally series one, where 'Bodymore', a broke ass city is revealed in all its ugly beauty from the 'smile and wave' mayor to the 'honest' but flawed cop to the 'survival of the fittest' drug dealers and everything in between.
BTW Lopaki is the samoan version of Robert so as a last post i decided to round up all the shit i talked here and tried to present it as a cohesive rant at hiphopnz.
i guess the final irony is, the anonymous 'victims' original intent for the story was to get an opinion from Bailey regarding his last incarceration, with the end result being they are now culpable in the charges that will probably see him getting jailed again.
where's the justice ?...maybe karma will sort them out.
[Edit:. Removed the link to that vile Dirty Sesh video. Just don't want it playing through my website, sorry. RB]
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I respect your stake in this, but unless you think there are unlimited media resources then frankly, yes, there is competition for public attention.
It's not necessarily a zero sum game though. I'd much rather the media put more time into both of them and less into Rock of Love IV or Who loves New York, or whatever is on this week.
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The Wire, you say? Sounds interesting.
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It's not necessarily a zero sum game though. I'd much rather the media put more time into both of them and less into Rock of Love IV or Who loves New York, or whatever is on this week.
Please do explain how conventional media is not zero sum - there are hardly unlimited production or distribution resources/channels.
I agreed earlier we could focus on all the issues mentioned by diverting effort from others as you suggest - but that won't happen on its own:
the resources could cover all those areas you mention - so long as we can persuade those in control to ignore some others instead
Let's get persuading.
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As a parent of an ASD child, I'd like to see that get the full attention it deserves, thank you very much. It's not my cause against theirs, for heaven's sake.
As the parent of ASD children, I can't help but wonder how Bailey Kurariki might have turned out had he enjoyed a loving, supportive family life and good opportunities. Would he still have been a bad bastard?
I've been surprised how many people have been prepared to dismiss him as the undeserving bad seed -- and mindful that ASD people are over-represented in the ranks of the apparently mad and bad in our prisons. (I'm not suggesting he is ASD, at all, but I do think about the way our younger boy could have developed in less fortunate circumstances.)
The kind of reporting the HoS was attempting to conduct in this sorry affair wasn't about to benefit him or us. It would merely have perpetuated the element of criminal celebrity that seems to exacerbate whatever problems Kurariki already has.
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And I think Martin's piece expressed that well
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