Posts by Kerry Weston
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Why don't either of the Big 2 realise that kiwis are born with inbuilt bullshit detectors? The sad thing about Key is that it's become obvious that he is constrained by *whoever* and comes across as very uncomfortable. Diana Wichtel picked it up in the Listener - Key was on Moon tv, plainly to push a message, not to actually be part of the show. If he had only used the chance to show he had a real sense of humour and been relaxed, he could have scored points. The fastest way to show a kiwi you're real is to crack a joke - one of your own, not a scripted one.
OTOH, Clark is so well polished, she's unreachable.
The really dumb thing - out in the Land of the Great Unwashed, we all know how contrived and manipulated the whole show is. All the spinning is self-defeating. It increases the levels of mistrust, the alienation of the people from the processes of democracy. A great leader is one who carries the people with them and has some real faith in them.
The message I get from parliament and the bureaucrats is that they hold the rest of us in contempt.
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Silo at Masi... god I miss that woman
You and me both.
Jeez, the small world of PA...was acquainted with Silo & planning on nipping in for coffee & chat on planned visit to see the Rita Angus exhibition when it opens. Darn.
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Just to make myself clear - Mugabe horrifies me because he is hurting his own people. I certainly did not mean to imply that *if* a similar situation arose in NZ, that it would be in the context of a Maori uprising or revolution and therefore, pakeha would be hoping to be rescued by our old allies.
Quite to the contrary . If I had a picture in my head of a monster dictator here, he would be a white, losing his hair, authoritarian, silver-tongued devil, who would preface every nasty move with those immortal words "for your own good."
In that event, I'd be heading for the hills, north of Waikeremoana.
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Mugabe - the question I ask is "who and what does it serve to allow the present situation to continue?"
How much of a monster does Mugabe have to be (and his army that might or might not be under his control) before all the fretting around the sidelines solidifies into something else?
If that unthinkable scenario happened here, how would ordinary kiwis feel if our old allies sat round knitting while we got tortured and bumped off?
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Mr Laws did the Manhire Masters in Creative Writing at Vic....
I kid you not... i found one of his short stories in a slim volume of student work from that year.
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there's this bunch of radical raving pinko, umm, Chief Constables in Britain who have the answer.
Someone pass that Welsh copper a joint ....
as for 'revenge in new Guinea' - well, the revenge reflex lies dormant until pinged by personal horror and loss. I'm a pacifist until I'm threatened, too. Most of us learn to evade or defuse confrontation somehow, if we're not up for a stoush.
On a related note, the Musket Wars here of the 1820s-30s wrought carnage for Maori, something like 40,000 displaced, unknown killed. Unfortunate timing really - made the missionary message and the poison apple of british justice and protection offered seem a useful alternative for those tired of war. And New Zealand kept our men primed for war for most of the 20th century - two world wars & Vietnam before we twigged that we might have better things to do. The veneer of civilisation is pretty thin.
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95% of our students know all that stuff already and practice it as do their parents. Those causing all the grief are an incredibly small minority
True. Dumping it on teachers to solve and parenting classes ain't the answer either. Of course the naughty boys know it's naughty! That's the whole point, for them. Just like the bag-snatcher and home invader in Aucks know it was wrong.
I don't have an answer, but I suggest that it's all a rather inevitable result of everyday life in the bottom reaches of capitalism's maw. People push their own self-destruct and rage buttons when they can't find a "place to be" and are not equipped to find or make options for themselves that are hopeful or even possible.
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Interesting feedback - I had wondered if the other guys in the car might be filming the encounter for show on youtube, but my boy reckons they were too far away. As I've talked to folks about this, it's clear that such incidents aren't uncommon at all. There's always been boofheads looking for fights, but these incidents seem a bit different - I've been hearing of people getting smacked hard in the head from behind, as they ambled down the road, lots of guys-in-cars leaping out and doing someone over just for the hell of it.
While my own first response would be to screech my head off and kick the attacker in the nuts, I worry that any response might incur retaliation from hidden weapons and result in worse injury for someone.
As for the police - well, there was no 'serious injury' and the car was too far away to get plates - no doubt someone else in Palmy was getting dealt to far worse that night.
I see women in the states are loading up with tasers. The hairspray's a good option - ta!
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Okay, rabid post-backers of PA - here's a real life incident of street violence - how would you handle it?
My almost-18 son was in Palmerston North last Saturday night, minding his own business, walking with 3 friends to pick up their car. Two young guys approached them (there were two more in their car parked down the road) and asked for directions. A moment later, they laid into my son and one of his friends - no provocation. No serious damage to my boy - stayed on his feet, but was concussed, very sore head. Police were called, but they weren't very interested (fair enough).
Now, do I advise him to take up boxing?? Not to walk the streets at night? The son & friends should have gone for gold while they outnumbered the two aggressors?? (That's what has been suggested by fathers of other boys and one or two male acquaintances). He's not at all aggressive, BTW, they're muso boys from Feilding.
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Nostalgic memories of unreconstructed subs/setters and proofies made me decide to take a late degree with a view to doing some journo stuff - however, I've been put off the whole idea by what passes for quality now, especially in the newspapers; the rubbish rate paid to freelancers, the celebration of the second rate, shallow, fatuous, glossy and banal ....
tis all very sad....