Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Undie Wankers

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  • Geoff Lealand,

    NZ is a dull place for kids

    Please elaborate....

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    And the only convicts to actually be shipped here from Australia were those under 'sentence of death to be eaten by the cannibals of New Zealand."

    They were probably at greater risk of being cannibalised if they'd stayed in Australia.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    True, Joe, true-

    as for ANZ being 'a dull place for kids' - puhleeeze!
    This is ratshit stupid.
    At the moment, one of my nephews is having a bonfire & barbeque.
    He's chosen the food, and his Dad is a gun cook & barbequer, and his Mum is a gun cook, and his Nana is a gun cook-of-everything-else-The fireworks have gone. Shortly, he & 2 mates are going wallaby shooting - and after, because it's his birthday, he'll be allowed to be up gameplaying for the next coupla hours. He's now 12 - so the sex et al stuff will start to kick in pretty soon - meantime, he leads a very full life indeed, including everything from bike stuff to rockclimbing (not many of my family are into team sports (but we read & are computer freaks-)to checking his eel-trap apopo-

    DULL??!!!
    WTF?

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    Dunedin seems to be getting a bad rap for being dull, which surprises me. There were plenty of clubs or societies set up by OUSA, good facilities to use for sports/fitness, good local beaches or tourist traps and the campus was close enough to the centre of the city that going to see a film or visit cafe (if one could afford either), or visiting a gallery was quite easy. Then of course there was the drinking culture. I don’t recall anyone I knew getting too bored prior to about third year, at which point most graduated and left Dunedin. I put that down to itchy feet or the desire to get out and work/earn, as much to Dunedin’s alleged inherent dullness.

    What exactly would have I been doing for recreation as an 18-21 year old student in Christchurch, Wellington, Palmerton North, Hamilton, Auckland etc? Bearing in mind study commitments, general lack of disposable income and a desire to socialise with other students? The only major advantages I can see is that I might have had a better chance of meeting non students or getting a slightly nicer flat to live in.

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I suspect 'dull' here means 'has not enough riots' - what can you do? you're damned if you do and damned if you don't

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Williams,

    Actually, the whole "First Four Ships" is old-boy propaganda, based on the Wakefield settlement: there were many other Brit imports around
    long before they arrived.

    Ships, I meant ships.

    Sorry. I lived in Christchurch for a year, can't recall how many times I was asked about my connections or which school I went too... De La Salle, Mangere... didn't seem to open doors....

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    . . . which school I went to . . .

    That particular form of bum-sniffing is very much the go on Sydney's lower North Shore, where even the wait staff in restaurants seem to have gone to "good" schools. Once, in Neutral Bay, I witnessed a monocled fop - an actual monocle, the only time I've seen such a thing in real life - engage a waitress in a long yibbling conversation about what school she'd been to. Bloody annoying when you're waiting for someone to take your order.

    Compared to Christchurch, it's an anthropoligist's paradise.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    Paul, it is indeed a hard balancing act

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    engage a waitress in a long yibbling conversation

    Lovely expression, sir.

    Ships, I meant ships.

    Given the tone, confusing the word with another is excusable. Stoke up the couches..

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    For all the gripes that I hear about students having their own special legal system with diversions to maintain their careers, I fail to see why that should be turned around and they get pinged twice for something - police and university punishment.

    Nothing personal, but isn't that the same sort of one-way sense-of-entitlement thinking that is annoying some people? I wonder if that is less about class than it used to be. Perhaps just more obvious somehow in the offspring of the relatively wealthy.

    I'm sure someone can dig up figures for diversion and occupation. In any case, if prospective professionals believe they are entitled to diversion on grounds of their impending "career", it seems reasonable that they be held to an equally exceptional standard in other areas. Two-way street, no matter what suburb.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Sorry. I lived in Christchurch for a year, can't recall how many times I was asked about my connections or which school I went too... De La Salle, Mangere... didn't seem to open doors....

    I once witnessed a truly hilarious conversation between two women (in a teacher/parent context) where they both established that they were from Christchurch. Then the teacher said she'd grown up in Fendalton, and where had the other grown up?

    "Oh, New Brighton!"

    The awkward silence that then descended was the most salutory lesson in Christchurch social issues I ever had.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    NZ is a dull place

    Everywhere is a dull place, for dull people.

    Although I will agree that the zone of activities which a child can do unsupervised by their dull parents, and which said child won't be persecuted by their dullard mates for pursuing, can be a small one.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    Seconding Stephen. With the caveat that it can be harder to find interesting stuff to do in a smaller town, as the smaller population base means less stuff happens per se.

    But I don't think that this is anything particularly unique. Growing up in Dunedin is probably like growing up in a medium-sized city anywhere. Or, indeed, a big city: I know several Londoners who frequently moan that there's nothing to do in London.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    I know several Londoners who frequently moan that there's nothing to do in London.

    Get the fuck outta here!

    (I am being incredulous, not urging you to leave. In case the tone was unclear.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Nothing personal, but isn't that the same sort of one-way sense-of-entitlement thinking that is annoying some people? I wonder if that is less about class than it used to be. Perhaps just more obvious somehow in the offspring of the relatively wealthy.

    I'm sure someone can dig up figures for diversion and occupation. In any case, if prospective professionals believe they are entitled to diversion on grounds of their impending "career", it seems reasonable that they be held to an equally exceptional standard in other areas. Two-way street, no matter what suburb.

    My one way sense of entitlement is "ping these university students in exactly the same way as you'd ping any other person doing a similar act?" Sounds like non-entitlement to me.

    I've previously argued against students getting any sort of special treatment in court under diversion, which I note isn't a university scheme, they're just more likely to access it.

    On that basis, I feel perfectly entitled to argue that once they've gone through the courts, not got diversion, and been convicted and fined, they then shouldn't be hit again by being excluded by the university simply because they're students. Nothing at all which happened over the weekend related to them as students, it was just drunken young people being dicks. You pay for that in the courts, not in the lecture theatre.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    >NZ is dull for kids

    Please elaborate....

    Well NZ is the kind of place where a bunch of fuckwits getting pissed and acting like dicks is front page news, and worthy of over 200 earnest posts by its most intelligent internet commentators, every year.

    We all know the problem. The solution I've most like so far was the idea of formalizing this insanity. A small street, preferably with only student flats in it, could be the perfect zone for a collective staging of the annual traditions of South Island Uni Student Drunken Tomfoolery. Anyone wishing to dispose of an old couch can contribute, and no one can be arrested for throwing anything, nor can any complaints be laid for police behavior. For safety, all drink bottles should be made of sugar glass. A media staging point just outside of the action zone should be set up for interviews, prizes for the most stupid comment is a 10 second setup clip of some police brutality involving the commenter. The police need to also use it as an excellent platform to push for increase in powers and weapons, showing that a tazer is totally ineffective for riot control but rubber bullets, or running pigs work better (with live demonstrations of each option). Subbing out of the action should be as simple as lying down screaming, or running inside a flat. When the action is complete, an enormous bonfire could be started in which every last piece of burnable detritus should be tossed on, and a huge double conga line of police and rioters should perform an elaborate dance, in which they first shake hands, then spiral around the bonfire frenetically, getting optionally more and more naked. The last act would be the fire department turning up and hosing the entire street clean of fires, couches, glass and people. The whole thing should be subsidized by the Student Unions of the contributing Universities.

    NZs version of Pamplona.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I hazard a guess that it does relate to them being university students. Not that I think all university students lack maturity, or an understanding of there privilege.

    Well it clearly doesn't given that a bunch of people arrested weren't Otago university students. But despite that...

    I grew up in a time and place where parties of people my age (also good white kids) were crashed by hundreds of people and turned into out of control events which often necessitated the attendance of large groups of police, in riot gear in several instances that I can recall.

    The fact that many of my fellow Rangitoto College students were involved in those parties, didn't lead to them being suspended or expelled from school.

    This is not a university or even university related event. It's not run by OUSA. The university's driving concern here is the negative image that this has on the institution and its degrees. Which is all fine enough, but that shouldn't give them the right to penalise the students on top of what the courts have applied.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    (I am being incredulous, not urging you to leave. In case the tone was unclear.)

    No, really. To paraphrase Stephen: for dull people, anywhere can be dull. And faced with SO MUCH stuff going on, some people just kind of shut down and ignore it all. And then moan about how there's nothing interesting happening, it's all so tedious, etc.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle MacDonald,

    Awfully sorry to interupt, and I know it's very bad manners to do so, but...

    ACC are trying to drastically reduce funding and access for counselling available to visitims of sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse (Sensitive Claims.)
    Please help the counsellors and therapists trying to fight these changes by signing this online petition:

    http://www.petitiononline.com/ACC0909/petition.html
    Thank you muchly fellow Public Address readers

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 82 posts Report Reply

  • Luke Williamson,

    Thanks BenWilson. That's more like it. To coin that obnoxiuos phrase, "We need to work smarter, not harder". We already have a whole pile of kids who want to have an annual riot so let's make something useful out of it. We could fly in young tourists who want to join in direct from anywhre in NZ or the world. It could be big! The police could invite police from other countries to come and try out their tactics. Some sort of scoring system maybe?

    Warkworth • Since Oct 2007 • 297 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    I don't think scoring - that's so 1980s computer games. It should be based around "achievements" so everyone gets to be a winner.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Oh dear Mr Lhaws is going to be a bit upset .....

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    The police could invite police from other countries to come and try out their tactics.

    That one could be total goer. Challenge the foreign fuzz to deal with hundreds of rioting yoof without resort to firearms!

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    Oh dear Mr Lhaws is going to be a bit upset

    Is it Lhaws or Lawhs? Either way, I think the decision is almost worth it just for the reaction it's going to trigger from dear Mikey.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Luke Williamson,

    I don't think scoring - that's so 1980s computer games. It should be based around "achievements" so everyone gets to be a winner.

    Like achievement standards in NCEA? Students could get credits towards their degrees based on their performance. It could be a paper in the Sociology Dept - Undie 101. It's coming together nicely.

    Warkworth • Since Oct 2007 • 297 posts Report Reply

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