Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: Time for an Intervention

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  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    @ JT only

    but disagree as you choose to only look to the establishment for recognition and acceptance.

    Nah, just that I don't think Islander is that exclusive. No offence meant.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Rightwing extremist, hell yes! His entire mayoralty (and Court cases) has been about ACT policies.
    Everytime he speaks at Amry engagements (I've been to a few). His starting point is property rights, i.e. the Army protects property rights. Of course it doesn't, that is the role of private contractors. Was that contractors or ambassadors (CCC code for private security)?

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Sofie, No offense take, only a little confusion (me only I'm sure).

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Just Thinking- that is the second really uplifting post for me tonight! Thank you so much.
    Ka mihi koa, ka mihi aroha ki a koe-

    it is that thing about the 'Establishment' (which riddles CHCH) - and I suppose I fought it by 'buggering off and running away.' I really liked a response in the ODT that pointed out - not only my whanau were south, but a large portion of my writing was written south...but anyway: "Know 'we' are here and love you. Aroha nui JT"
    truly heartens me. I cherish your words - along with Sof's - the sculpture (Steve's work, and Sof's painting) is for the stroke rehab unit at Auckland, and is the result of of the attention that Russell and PAS brought to Chris Knox's stroke.

    And so- the good things of this world get round-

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

  • Islander,

    Sofie - have replied!

    (Anybody else experienced weird mail-box outages with Vodaphone?)

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

  • webweaver,

    Aha! Yes Islander! Me! Half of today's emails didn't arrive in my inbox until this evening - hours after they were sent - and ones I sent also took hours to arrive.

    And talking of being recognised (or not) - when I first came to NZ many moons ago I spent months travelling round the country. When I arrived in your neck-o-the-woods (which I reckon is the most beautiful place on earth) I was told, very proudly, by more than one local person "Did you know - Islander lives here".

    You mean a lot to them - and consequently to me - as you were the first NZ author I ever became aware of (reading Hemi's Autumn Testament in the rain while sitting on the verandah in a commune up the Ahu Ahu River was the second).

    You may not have been properly recognised by The Establishment, but you are most certainly valued by those who know you. But I'm sure you know that already :)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report Reply

  • Dave Patrick,

    Christchurch is a strange place....... as a (semi)-recent arrival from Auckland, the first thing to hit us about it was it was really, REALLY flat.

    The second was the almost complete lack of brown faces, of any kind - I don't mean this as a perpetuation of stereotyping, but just as an observation - even the roadworkers, rubbish men and dairy owners were white.

    The third was the obsession with school - namely the attempt to pigeon-hole you by what school you attended, so people would know how to deal with you, or whether you were worth talking to (foiled completely by us having gone to small schools in places no one has heard of - one in the King Country, one in Franklin). Even now, the Press, when talking about some person in the news, will mention what school they went to if it's a recognisably "nice" school (one of the privates, Girls or Boys High, Burnside at a stretch, Marlborough Girls).

    The fourth was the almost complete ignorance of even basic New Zealand geography outside of Canterbury (an inability to place Hamilton on a map for instance), and a fervent belief that Christchurch was the greatest city and best place to live in New Zealand, despite never having lived anywhere else.

    A strange, strange place.....

    Rangiora, Te Wai Pounamu • Since Nov 2006 • 261 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    Christchurch is a strange place....... [...] even the roadworkers, rubbish men and dairy owners were white.

    It sounds like this:

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Robbie Siataga,

    More and more in Churtown i found the racism tended to be directed at Asians. I went to a x-mass do and was shocked to hear both maori and whitey going off on how the asians are ruining Christchurch by having to expand sewerage treatment into the ocean to cater for all their shit.

    and i dunno bout lots of white workers doing the hard yards cos most of them out our way weren't, unless they vetted specific ethnicites for specific suburbs. Then again we were in Coon hay :)

    i have seen the 'christchurch old boy' network in full effect shutting out competition for jobs in the entertainment industry though. Maybe cos their wasnt enough work for the specialist industry providers as is and it was always easier to hire in outside expertise and just farm out the minor stuff to local businesses.

    What i found was, Christchurch suffered from a big fish in a little pond syndrome but not realising that really they were just small fish in a big pond.

    in stereotyping, i 'd say its got a small town attitude hiding behind big city bluster with the high arts and culture thing being very much a joke.

    a few of us thought we could make a difference in creating some infrastructure that would keep musical artists in churtown without having to go to aux or welli to promote themselves but gave up in the end...we were basically pissing in the wind.

    i dont know that christchurch wll ever change much and maybe i don't want it too. I got soo many great memories of growing up surrounded by my extended Samoan family, knowing we had each others back and feeling safe, secure and insulated because of it.

    Sad to see arts funding get cut for Pasifikan initiatives down there but then again most of it went to the usual suspects year after year. I dont think thats a specifically Pasifikan problem though.

    Since Feb 2010 • 259 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Emma, I'm not sure how CCTV helps

    In the Mellory Manning case, it would have given them footage of her getting into the car of the man who killed her. They used the footage they did have, of what they'd worked out from interviewing other sex workers was probably that car, but it was taken from up the road and round the corner and was bugger-all use.

    Also, if you've decided, coldly and pre-meditatedly, that you're going to kill a sex worker, would you not be a little concerned if she was standing under a security camera?

    I know, "surveilance is bad" and all that, but it was the Prostitutes' Collective who asked for the cameras. They believed it would make them safer. Sue disagreed: she felt that, for the sake of the prostitutes, the law needed reviewing, and tighter regulation set up - basically, to get the workers off the streets. That attitude is hardly exlcusive to Chch councils, or to conservatives.

    This was raised during the Ipswich killings in England. Because street prostitution is illegal, prostitutes avoided areas with security cameras, pushing them into isolated areas and making them more vulnerable. What we've learned (and NZ has an awful lot to show England about sex work, it's just that nobody will listen) is that you can't expect workers to move to the cameras, you have to put the cameras in the established red light districts.

    The second was the almost complete lack of brown faces, of any kind - I don't mean this as a perpetuation of stereotyping, but just as an observation - even the roadworkers, rubbish men and dairy owners were white.

    I've just moved from Upper Riccarton to Bromley, and expected to find it disconcertingly white over here. But even here, where I'm no longer living in an area that's about evenly pakeha-polynesian-Asian, that's not true.

    the almost complete ignorance of even basic New Zealand geography outside of Canterbury (an inability to place Hamilton on a map for instance), and a fervent belief that Christchurch was the greatest city and best place to live in New Zealand, despite never having lived anywhere else.

    This is not one I've run across before. Chch is, after all, a university town. Most of my friends weren't born here, and about half the people I went to uni with now live and work in Wellington. The same would be true of my partner's workmates - most of them aren't originally from Christchurch. Perhaps we live unusually rich and varied lives.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Dave Patrick,

    Moving from Manukau to Christchurch may have had something to do with the "man this place is white" perception :) - and an overgrown rural service town (Rangiora) is probably a slightly different beast to actually living in Christchurch itself.

    Rangiora, Te Wai Pounamu • Since Nov 2006 • 261 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Moving from Manukau to Christchurch may have had something to do with the "man this place is white" perception :)

    Moving there from Timaru did exactly the reverse for me. And I used to say very much the same thing about Timaru: that it was so white even the fast food outlets were still run by Pakeha. That stopped being true about a decade ago.

    Still... a good friend who works at one school in our old area and has kids who've been through the system in that area said some of the kids who come in to Riccarton High School from the further away feeder schools (Hornby, Avonhead) really struggle with the non-whiteness of it. It'd be like, I suppose, going to a co-ed high school after going to a single-sex primary.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Robbie Siataga,

    I like what they did with poplar lane and sol square ? Rather that than the strip or the 'axis of evil' that was shooters, the grumpy mole and the loaded hog.

    though i tended when out to just float between double happy and the concrete club.

    I 'd always thought Christchurch would be a great place to shoot a devil worshipping, serial killing, dark TV series maybe with vampires, just cos it's got that 'behind closed doors' underbelly of who knows what and also cos most of the filmy types down there are twisted as :)

    Theres a shitload of talent there and you could really tap into the broadcasting school and ilam uni film students. I reckon all it needs is a Peter Jackson type svengali/patron type to build a TV industry around cos fuck knows Janine Morell and Jason Gunn aren't in it for anyone but themsleves.

    Since Feb 2010 • 259 posts Report Reply

  • philipmatthews,

    The fourth was the almost complete ignorance of even basic New Zealand geography outside of Canterbury (an inability to place Hamilton on a map for instance), and a fervent belief that Christchurch was the greatest city and best place to live in New Zealand, despite never having lived anywhere else.

    Not my experience, either. About half the people I know in Chch grew up here, about half didn't. Of those from outside, a surprising amount come from the North Island -- like I do -- quite a few from smaller SI cities (why are people so keen to escape Timaru?) and more than a few Brit ex-pats.

    I was in Katikati at Easter and on getting back to Chch was amazed at how few know where it is. But then how many who live in the North Island could find, say, Cheviot on a map? The thing is that NZers aren't that well-travelled around their own country.

    But Rangiora is a different beast ...

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    why are people so keen to escape Timaru?

    I don't... understand the question.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Not my experience, either. About half the people I know in Chch grew up here, about half didn't.

    About half the people I know in Christchurch are from Blenheim. Which isn't hard to understand.

    Then again, my current boss grew up in, went to university in, and now works in Christchurch - that'd do my head in, but apparently some people want to spend their entire lives in the same city. Even when that city is Christchurch.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    why are people so keen to escape Timaru?

    Its the Tokoroa of the South Island?
    A very popular place to be from.

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    A rich and varied life is an option if you live in a town where a 40min commute, is fancy talk for walking to work. Half my commute is through Hagley Park on my bicycle.

    I've found many/most of my closest friends are Ozzies living in Christchurch, who have married into the city.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan,

    Its the Tokoroa of the South Island?
    A very popular place to be from.

    That's true, actually. I know a lot of people I like from Timaru, but I can't think of anyone i like in Timaru.

    (Also, Emma, you'll note I refused the opportunity to make a cheap crack about people from Timaru. Despite your apparent insistence on offending Rangi girls....)

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Ah, but imagine what she could have said

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan,

    Oh, Sacha, I don't need to imagine.

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    There were suggestions..

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    That's true, actually. I know a lot of people I like from Timaru, but I can't think of anyone i like in Timaru.

    I know a guy who moved to Timaru to work. He had a computer engineering degree.

    Yes, bemused silence is the usual response to that revelation.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    I can't think of anyone i like in Timaru.

    My Mum. You'd like my Mum. And you'd like Matthew Littlewood, but he's only in Timaru on much the same conditions Russell was.

    Despite your apparent insistence on offending Rangi girls....

    There were suggestions..

    Yes. The worst of which was from Megan.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    And you'd like Matthew Littlewood, but he's only in Timaru on much the same conditions Russell was.

    Russell did PD in Timaru?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

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