Philip Larkin - The Explosion
On the day of the explosion
Shadows pointed towards the pithead.
In the sun the slagheap slept.
Down the lane came men in pitboots
Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke,
Shouldering off the freshened silence.
One chased after rabbits; lost them;
Came back with a nest of lark's eggs;
Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.
So they passed in beards and moleskins,
Fathers, brothers, nicknames, laughter,
Through the tall gates standing open.
At noon, there came a tremor; cows
Stopped chewing for a second; sun,
scarfed as in a heat-haze, dimmed.
The dead go on before us, they
Are sitting in God's house in comfort,
We shall see them face to face -
Plain as lettering in the chapels
It was said, and for a second
Wives saw men of the explosion
Larger than in life they managed -
Gold as on a coin, or walking
Somehow from the sun towards them,
One showing the eggs unbroken.
Technorati tags: Pike River, Pike River disaster, Pike River mine, explosion, Philip Larkin, poem, New Zealand, West Coast, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Pike River
Monday, October 25, 2010
Why I will be attending the Rally of Hope to support filming of "The Hobbit" in New Zealand
I'm a strong believer in Unions and workers rights in general. Many of the rights we have as working people today are thanks to the sterling efforts of Unionists around the globe who fought for better conditions and better pay. We have a great deal to thank them for.
However, I also believe in having a decent strategy when you're fighting for change, and I think it's vital to pick your battles carefully.
Choosing to use the nuclear option at a very early stage by attempting to hold a multi-million dollar corporation to ransom when you have no aces in your hand is a risky strategy at best - and at worst (as we have seem with the whole Hobbit debacle) it can come back and bite you in the ass - hard.
It can also put the jobs of many of your fellow workers in jeopardy - and if you're on the side of the working stiff, as the Equity actors claim to be - surely that should also include the film crew, the pre- and post-production teams, the extras, the support staff and everyone else involved in or affected by the trickle-down effect of shooting (or not shooting) a $500 million movie in New Zealand?
Tomorrow the Warner Brothers executives will be here to hold emergency talks about the future of The Hobbit in New Zealand. They will be deciding on whether to spend their money here, whether to employ our incredibly talented and experienced film crews here, and ultimately they will be deciding whether or not we will be able to keep our unique title of "Middle-earth".
Do I wish that they didn't have that level of power over so many Kiwis' livelihoods? Yes of course - but the fact is, they do - and I'm hoping that a strong turnouts at the nationwide Rally of Hope to support filming of "The Hobbit" in New Zealand will serve to show Warner Brothers how much the people of New Zealand support Peter Jackson's wish to film The Hobbit here, and how hard we'll work to make sure that it happens.
I hope you'll join me.
Facebook Group here - Rally to support filming of "The Hobbit" in New Zealand:
RALLIES FOR ALL NEW ZEALANDERS, Industry & public on Labour Day Monday, 12.30 for 1pm-2pm!
These POSITIVE rallies of support are timed to coincide with the visit of Warner Bros. movie executives to discuss moving The Hobbit away from NZ. We're going to show them that we like them, we want The Hobbit filmed here and we SUPPORT Sir Peter.
These rallies will also emphasize the points other groups like film techs intend to make in the national media to influence Warners.
They are NOT protests against certain groups.
Invite ALL of your friends!!!
"Is the movie going to come or go? We don't know. Warners are coming here next Monday and we've got to fight like hell,"
Sir Peter Jackson.
Here are my placards:
LOTR Oscars: 17
Premiere of ROTK: 120,000 people
Awesome NZ locations: 268,021 km2
Skilled & experienced crew: thousands
Keeping The Hobbit in NZ: priceless
New Zealand
is
Middle-earth
...these are cool too - people from all over the world are sending in video messages of support - if you can't make it to one of the rallies, you can do the same. More info on how to contribute a video here - Calling for Video Support! and view all the videos here - videosforclip's Channel.
Excellent series of questions and answers from actor Yvette Reid here - A NZ actor emailed me asking some questions about the Hobbit situation, here are my answers
The most recent Hobbit thread on Public Address - Hard News: Anatomy of a Shambles
Hope to see you at the Rally of Hope!
Technorati tags: The Hobbit, Warner Brothers, Rally of Hope, New Zealand, movie, YouTube, Facebook, Public Address, Yvette Reid, Tolkein, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Monday, October 11, 2010
The demise of Paul Henry and the rise of racism in New Zealand
When I first arrived in New Zealand 18 years ago I felt I had found the most beautiful place on the planet. And not just beautiful on the outside, but beautiful on the inside as well. The people were warm, friendly, and helpful. It was like walking into Paradise.
Kiwis would pick you up on the site of the road when you were hitching and sometimes drive miles out of their way to take you where you needed to go, or they'd invite you back to their place to stay the night and take you to your destination in the morning. At the dairy when you asked for an ice cream cone you'd get at least three scoops of ice cream instead of the mean little half-scoop one would expect back in the UK, and they always served you with a smile and a bit of friendly conversation.
I always used to say that New Zealand felt like it was set back in time by about 50 years. Back to a time when people had enough time to be nice to each other, where the pace of life was slower and where attitudes were positive, enthusiastic and generous.
I spent the first few years of my new life as a Kiwi bathed in that same kind of positivity. I joined an African drumming group in Wellington, and when we decided to branch out and start our own percussion-based world music ensemble, Many Hands, I was amazed at the number of people who thought it was a fabulous idea and were only too happy to get involved and help us make things happen.
"That'd never happen in England" I used to think to myself. "In England they're all 'ooohhhh no, can't do that, more-than-my-job's-worth, never been done before', whereas in NZ it's all 'wow cool idea, can I get involved, can I help, let me be a part of this'. It's wonderful!"
Same thing happened when I started organising dance parties and then got involved with The Gathering. All these amazing creative people jumping on board to help, people doing stuff for free because they loved the concept, all of us working together on TheG to make magic out of nothing, and all the Gatherers becoming the best that they could possibly be the moment they entered the sacred space of Canaan Downs.
But over the years I've seen I've my rose-tinted specs becoming more and more battered and damaged. The horrific levels of child abuse in this country, the anti-smacking bill backlash from Kiwis who appeared to feel it was their God-given right to hit their children, the awful statistics related to domestic violence of all kinds, our casual and brutal propensity to torture animals for fun - all these things have puzzled and deeply saddened me in this beautiful country I now call home.
The last couple of weeks have only served to damage my rose-tinted view of New Zealand still further.
I come from a country where racism was tolerated, where for many people it was the normal way to be. My dad was racist, and my sister and I spent many years fighting with him, arguing with him, and swearing at him across the dinner table (it was the one thing guaranteed to get a reaction from my parents). The level of intolerance shown by many people in the UK towards those different (in any way) from themselves was one aspect (out of many) that I despised in my fellow countrymen, and was one of the reasons that I eventually decided I no longer wanted to be English.
Somehow I thought it would be different here. That the intolerance and casual racism I saw in the UK was not a part of the Kiwi psyche at all, and that (for the most part) it didn't exist in New Zealand. I thought we were better than that. How wrong I was. How naïve.
It's bad enough that TVNZ has appeared to encourage Paul Henry's spectacularly offensive behaviour over the last however-long he's been on Breakfast for the sake of ratings.
It's bad enough that the man has been able to get away with offensive remarks about women, the elderly, homosexuality, Hispanics, Indians, Susan Boyle, families in the developing world, the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan - always people "different" from himself, always when they're not there to fight back, very often people of a different nationality, ethnicity and/or skin colour to himself - all without TVNZ lifting so much as a finger to rein him in.
It's bad enough that this pathetic small-minded bully has been paid to disparage and offend pretty much anyone he likes by our state-sponsored public broadcaster - paid for by you and I - a public institution that in some ways represents us all, commentates on our behalf, brings us news and entertainment and everything in between and that is bound by the Code of Broadcasting Practice which, amongst other things, requires that: Broadcasters should not encourage discrimination against, or denigration of, any section of the community on account of sex, sexual orientation, race, age, disability, occupational status, or as a consequence of legitimate expression of religion, culture or political belief.
It's bad enough that nothing was done to limit Mr Henry's ridiculous schoolboy-like behaviour until he managed to offend the Governor-General with what is, quite clearly, a racist comment.
It's bad enough that John Key was so "relaxed" about Henry's comments that he didn't make any attempt to point out during his interview that what Henry had just asked: "Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time... Are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?" was racist and offensive. A politician, especially the Prime Minister, needs to be able to think on his or her feet and respond appropriately. Not lamely laugh it off with a joke about whether the questioner is after the GG's job.
It's bad enough that it took John Key many hours (and with reference to urgent polling data I expect) before he managed to say anything that remotely resembled displeasure at Henry's racist comments. I'd have expected better than that from a Prime Minister, whatever his or her political hue.
It's bad enough that TNNZ's first comments about Paul Henry's GG questions were from their PR person Andi Brotherston, who saidThe audience tell us over and over again that one of the things they love about Paul Henry is that he's prepared to say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud,"
Um, no Andi. NO NO NO. He does NOT speak for me. I do not "quietly think" anything remotely similar to what comes out of that man's mouth and I'm appalled you think I do.
It's bad enough that Henry's first "apology" was one of those classic passive-aggressive non-apologies so beloved of those who've been made to apologise but really aren't sorry at all."I sincerely apologise to the Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, for any offence I may have caused. If my comments have personally offended Sir Anand, I regret it deeply."
Of course what that really means is:"I sincerely apologise to the Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, for any offence I may have caused [IF I caused any offence, which I don't think I did. I'm definitely not going to admit that my comments were in fact offensive, I'm just going to blame my victim for being offended]. If my comments have personally offended Sir Anand, [actually they were funny and therefore he obviously he has no sense of humour / is far too sensitive / is clearly demonstrating Political Correctness Gone Mad and therefore his feelings mean nothing to me] I regret it deeply."
It's bad enough that Henry's comments about Sir Anand Satyanand "not looking and sounding sufficiently like a New Zealander" were not only offensive to the GG himself, but to every single Kiwi out there who resembles or sounds like him - in other words, absolutely everyone whose skin is brown.
In Paul Henry's considered opinion, there's a certain group of New Zealanders who are "New Zealanders" and a certain group of New Zealanders who are not "New Zealanders". The determining factor in terms of whether you are acceptable to PH as a Kiwi is the colour of your skin and the way you speak. And that should offend all of us, whatever the colour of our skin or political persuasion.
It's bad enough that even after TVNZ had finally come to their senses and realised that the least they could get away with was to give PH a slap on the wrist and stand him down for a fortnight, the video footage of him laughing hysterically about his deliberately incorrect and deeply offensive pronunciation of Sheila Dikshit's name stayed up on the TVNZ website for at least two days: "The dip shit woman. God, what's her name? Dick Shit. Is it Dick Shit ... it looks like 'Dick Shit',"
...and of course his final comment - about her name being so appropriate because she's Indian is the icing on the bigoted cake.
"It's so appropriate, because she's Indian, so she'd be dick-in-shit wouldn't she, do you know what I mean? Walking along the street ... it's just so funny."
Yes, all these things are bad enough, but it's been the response of some of my fellow Kiwis that has shocked and saddened me the most.
In Paul Henry's resignation statement he said:I do not want to be the lightning rod for racial disharmony in this country
...which, quite frankly, I find disingenuous at the very least.
What this racist, bigoted man (and those at TVNZ who not only enabled, but encouraged him) has unleashed is an outpouring of racist comments from some New Zealanders that has shocked and horrified me, and that has rocked my love of my adopted country and my fellow countrymen and women to the core.
Some recent comments from Paul Henry's Facebook page:Did you know indians fuck cows? that why they are holy in india . But can you really blame them. look at there women.
*Breaking News* NZ family of 3 evicted from 3 bedroom house in south auckland so 40 indians can move in!!!
If an indian baby was on fire how hard would you stomp the flames?
I would put it out with petrol
i would use bricks and a curry petrol blend.October the 29th is international run down a rag head day all Indians killed or maimed will be eligible for points 1 point per male 2 points for females and 3 points for kids.
Paul henry is a breath of fresh air. His aura he has captivates veiwers in a way where all can laugh at what he says. NEW ZEALANDERS that is, so why is it that punjabi's are aloud 2 watch our television and make comments half way around the world on what we kiwi's want 2 watch. If they spent half the time worrying about whats in their own back yards then in others then maybe their wont so much poverty there and maybe our kiwi born television presenters wont mistake them for looking like dickshit.
India is like a sewer and the people are like turds floating in the sewer.
Im sure incest is common in india?
I'm sorry, that's only the first page and I'm feeling sick already. I'm not going to read or paste any more. You get the picture.
your goat fuckers who wipe there arses with there hands you sick fuck
naaargi buudbuud rat eating monobrow looking raabi infested povertised ridden cow and goat hailing low life monkeys ! PAUL HENRY said exactly what i needed to make me laugh that morning and i thank him. DICKSHIT OR IS IT DICK'N SHIT
I'm ashamed to be a Kiwi right now. Completely ashamed. I didn't think New Zealanders were like this.
Paul Henry may be gone from our screens (thankfully, for the moment anyway - I'm sure he'll be back unfortunately), but he's left the nasty dark underbelly of intolerance and racism in New Zealand exposed, encouraged, and out there for all to see. It's appalling.
Technorati tags: Paul Henry, TVNZ, Sheila Dikshit, Sir Anand Satyanand, Governor-General, New Zealand, racism, bigotry, WebWeaver's World, webweaver
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Government backs down on mining our National Parks
WE DID IT!
I'm doing a Snoopy Happy Dance here at home, after the government today announced they were backing down on their plans to mine our National Parks.
Looks like I'm not going to have to chain myself to the bulldozers after all. Well, not right this minute, anyway.
Thank God there's someone in the National Party who's able to see that they got it really, really wrong - and that it would be political suicide to continue with their plans in the face of such enormous opposition.
Mind you, that person is most definitely not Gerry Brownlee - spinning the announcement madly this evening by saying that this is nothing less than a mandate from the people to go ahead and mine the shit out of the rest of the country instead. Just go ahead and try it, Gerry - and I think in many places you'll find the opposition is just as strong as it was for the Schedule 4 areas.
I emailed Gerry Brownlee, John Key and Kate Wilkinson when this whole thing blew up. This is what I said:I am outraged. How dare you???
Our National Parks and conservation areas are our taonga. They are what makes us special, and unique, and what many of the tourists who spend $9billion a year here come to see. Not for nothing do our many visitors call New Zealand "the most beautiful place in the world".
And you want to dig them up and destroy parts of our precious heritage for ever - in the name of profit - most of which will go to the mining companies? Based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation from a mining industry consultant - and without seeking any advice on the impact of mining on our tourism industry? Unbelievable.
You selfish, small-minded, greedy bastards. Yes I'm angry - I'm downright furious. I'm currently listening to Ms Wilkinson ranting on in parliament. My God. If she's the Minister for Conservation, then God help the environment.
"Surgical mining"? Is that like 'scientific whaling' by any chance? Don't lie to us - some people may be fooled, but the majority are not - and for many of us, me included - this is our line in the sand.
I'm sending you this message from the Forest & Bird website. I joined the organisation yesterday - I've never been a member before - specifically because you are trying to prevent DoC staff from discussing mining with F&B. How pathetic. What are you afraid of? They've revealed nothing that isn't true.
In the space of just a few months you have turned me back into a political activist - after 20 years of relative political inactivity. Good for you. I suspect I am not the only one. I also suspect that the passion you have unleashed in those of us who care about our environmental heritage will be far stronger than the vague feelings of greed you have stirred up in those poor deluded fools who actually believe your lies and spin.
National and ACT - the parties that know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Prepare for a fight, because that's what you're gonna get. We're not going to let you do this.
Back when I wrote that email I didn't know just how much opposition there would actually be. I was hopeful - I knew yer average Kiwi was proud of our beautiful National Parks, and I knew there would be many people who were, like me, outraged at the prospect of parts of them being destroyed for 30 pieces of silver - but I wasn't 100% sure that there'd be enough of an outcry to make them stop.
I knew we had to hit them hard and hit them fast - it's much easier to stop plans like these at an early stage than it is to try and stop them when you've reached the chaining-yourself-to-the-bulldozers stage.
I will be forever grateful to the Green Party, Forest & Bird, Greenpeace and all the other groups who joined forces under the banner of 2precious2mine - and who all utilised the power of the internet, social networking, online organising and online submission-making to get 47,000 signatures on the Greens' anti-mining petition, 40,000 people demonstrating against the proposals in Auckland in May, and 37,552 New Zealanders making submissions, the vast majority of which opposed the government's plans. Now that's people power in action.
I was banking on something I mentioned in my email - I suspected that the passion felt by those who opposed the mining would be much stronger than any vague feelings of greed in those who either didn't care about our environmental heritage, or who believed the government's spin that mining was the only possible solution to our economic woes.
From that perspective, I felt that even if we were in the minority, we'd work until we dropped to make sure the mining didn't happen - and that we'd be able to win through sheer force of will, even if we didn't quite have the numbers.
Turns out I underestimated my fellow Kiwis just a bit - and that a majority were opposed to mining anyway, which is awesome - and that a HUGE number of people felt passionately enough about it to get off their asses and make themselves heard - which is extremely awesome.
I think in retrospect, the tipping point was probably the sheer number of National supporters who were also horrified by their party's plans. (Well, that and John Key's desperate need to retain his Mr Popular image). I don't think Brownlee et al saw that coming at all - although, honestly, if they couldn't see the NIMBY vote coming out in full force in Auckland to protect their beautiful playgrounds in the Coromandel and Great Barrier Island, then they're more stupid than I thought.
I was struck by a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is generally "All National, All The Time". We rarely talk politics these days 'cos we never agree and we'd rather stay friends than fight - so I was completely amazed to be discussing the mining proposals with her and to be hearing her say how outraged she was, and how untrustworthy she feels her party has become, and how she doesn't believe much of anything they say any more - and how if there was an election tomorrow she might not be able to bring herself to vote for them!
Holy hell! For me, that was huge. I have no doubt that National's pollsters were well aware of the backlash from their party faithful, and I'm betting that that had a major influence on their decision to do a 180. It's one thing to stir up anger and protest in a bunch of lefties and greenies who are never going to vote for you anyway - and quite another to offend your own party members to such an extent that they begin contemplating not voting for you any more...
I see two dark clouds on the horizon of this otherwise sunny day of celebration.
The first is that the government is changing the rules so that the Energy and Resources Minister will now be included in decisions regarding access to conservation land. Currently those decisions are made by the Minister for Conservation alone.
The fact that the guy trying to promote mining now gets to influence decisions made by the woman who (in theory at least) is supposed to be standing up for the rights of the environment is a big concern, and one which has not escaped the notice of environmental groups, including ECO (Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand):The Government decision not to take areas from Schedule Four is welcome, but the Government decision to give the Minister of Energy and Resources effective control over mining access to conservation land was a major step backwards, the Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO) said today.
ECO co-chair Cath Wallace said the decision on schedule 4 protected land is a victory for all those who made submissions, marched and signed petitions against the proposal to open up further conservation land to mining. “The government deserves credit for listening to them.”
“The Government should now listen to those submitters and not include the Minister of Economic Development (Gerry Brownlee) in making decisions on other conservation land.”
Ms Wallace said the process showed that neither Gerry Brownlee nor his Ministry understood the real values of conservation areas and the attachment New Zealanders have to it.
The second dark cloud is the direction in which Gerry is already spinning this:"From my perspective this has been a valuable exercise. I suspect few New Zealanders knew the country had such considerable mineral potential before we undertook this process, and I get a sense that New Zealanders are now much more aware of that potential and how it might contribute to economic growth.
"Essentially the discussion process identified where the minerals industry can and can't go. As many people have pointed out, around 85 per cent of the country is not protected by Schedule 4, and a great deal of that land has mineral potential.
"New Zealanders have given the minerals sector a clear mandate to go and explore that land, and where appropriate, within the constraints of the resource consent process, utilise its mineral resources for everyone's benefit," Mr Brownlee said.
The government has also decided to undertake a significant aeromagnetic survey of non Schedule 4 land in Northland and on the West Coast of the South Island to learn more about which areas have the highest concentrations of valuable minerals.
"I am delighted to announce that the aeromagnetic survey in Northland will be conducted as a partnership between central government and the various agencies of local government in Northland.
"It is our expectation that when that data becomes available there will be an escalation of mineral exploration and extraction in those areas, which will be of benefit to the economies of both regions."
Only a politician could spin an outcry against one thing into a "clear mandate" in favour of something quite similar but not exactly the same.
It was completely obvious to anyone with half a brain that the government never had any intention of mining in the Coromandel or Great Barrier Island - they'd have lost Auckland and therefore the election if they'd pursued that goal - but at the time I figured that these were just a smokescreen.
I figured they'd back down with great fanfare on one or both areas, "Hey look! Aren't we democratic? We listened to the people!" and then go quietly away and mine somewhere else instead while people weren't looking.
Which is essentially what they are planning to do, if Gerry's spin is anything to go by. I thought they'd go away and mine another bit of Schedule 4 land (Paparoa or Stewart Island) so I'm massively pleased that they've also backed away from those plans - but I'm VERY concerned about the "85 per cent of the country [that] is not protected by Schedule 4" which Gerry already has his beady little eyes on.
Northland and the West Coast are definitely at risk now - and I see it as cynical in the extreme to target areas of the country where the population is under-employed and economically vulnerable - and therefore less likely to examine the true economic cost of allowing mining to go ahead in their backyards.
We won the battle today - but we didn't win the war. I don't think we'll ever win the war, to be honest, because there will always be greedy bastards out there anxious to rape and pillage our precious lands, and there will always be greedy shareholders looking to increase their dividends at whatever cost - but we have to keep on fighting - for ever - to protect what's important to us.
To me, that's always been the underlying truth of environmental activism. We fight because it's the right thing to do, not because we know we will always win. We won today, but we return to battle tomorrow.
Useful links
Technorati tags: mining, mining National Parks, Schedule 4, Gerry Brownlee, backdown, Kate Wilkinson, conservation, environment, 100% pure NZ, greenies, Greenpeace, Green Party, Forest & Bird, 2precious2mine, protest, environmental activism, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Monday, March 29, 2010
No Mining protest - printable placards
I've been having a play around making a few placards for tomorrow's No Mining in NZ's National Parks protest.
The protest will be outside Parliament from 12.30 to 1.30pm - Tuesday 29 March. Please come if you care about our National Parks.
Hope you like the placards. I've put links to the downloadable PDF versions at the end of this post.
National: Selling our heritage for 30 pieces of silver:
John Key: Why didn't you mention mining during the election campaign? [edited 30/03/10 to add the "John Key" bit at the beginning]
No mining in our National Parks:
Brownlee's postcard on Eden Park (with a side-by-side comparison of Waihi goldmine and Eden Park):
Surgical mining is a big lie - like scientific whaling: [edited 30/03/10 to make BIG LIE bigger]
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children:
Downloadable, printable placards
Each PDF consists of five A4 pages - the first is the full slogan so you can see what you're getting. The other four contain a quarter of the slogan each - with an overlap. If you print out all four you can trim them and put them together to make an A2-sized placard. Enjoy!- National: Selling our heritage for 30 pieces of silver (PDF, 288KB)
- John Key: Why didn't you mention mining during the election campaign? (PDF, 388KB)
- No mining in our National Parks (PDF, 388KB)
- Brownlee's postcard on Eden Park (PDF, 4.5MB)
- Surgical mining is a big lie - like scientific whaling (PDF, 260KB)
- We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children (PDF, 372KB)
Technorati tags: No mining, National Parks, protest, demonstration, placards, printable, No Mining in NZ's National Parks, environment, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Save Radio NZ! No mining in NZ's National Parks!
Or... How National And ACT Turned Me Back Into A Political Activist After Many Years Away...
In my dim and distant yoof, when I was still English, I was very politically active. I lived in the UK for most of Thatcher's 17-year reign, and my God it was a tough time to be a leftie.
I protested on behalf of CND (the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament); marched for Save the Whales; opposed the government's anti-gay legislation Clause 28; cheered Bishop Desmond Tutu when he spoke out in Hyde Park against the South African apartheid regime; welcomed Nelson Mandela to freedom at the huge concert in his honour at Wembley Stadium; demonstrated against the Falklands War and the first Gulf War; and was a local organiser in the Anti-Poll Tax campaign (I was at that riot in London - scary times indeed!).
One of the reasons why I finally left the UK was that I was just sick to death of banging my head against what seemed like a brick wall at the time. The day the British people voted the Conservatives in for yet another term (after John Major's coup that dethroned Thatcher as party leader) I was sitting on a little yacht in the Bay of Islands reading the paper and thinking "That's it. I resign. I no longer consider myself to be English. The British people are obviously too bloody stupid to be trusted with any kind of a vote on anything that means anything - and I quit." I've considered myself to be "formerly English" ever since.
Fast forward through the last 17-odd years as a New Zealander - I stopped travelling, settled in NZ, made friends, found a job, found a place to live, found another job, became a web designer/developer, moved house a few more times, eventually bought a house with a garden, got a couple of cats, worked my ass off - and somewhere along the way I lost my political activist streak.
I think it's partly because I was so involved in settling in a new country, which took up a lot of my energy, and partly because Kiwis on the whole are much more laid back and a lot less politically active than yer average pom. Or at least that's been my experience. Don't get me wrong - I still follow politics, I still have great political discussions when I get together with my mates, I'm a member of the Green Party - but in terms of actual activism I seemed to have pretty much given it up.
Until now.
I have National and ACT to thank for that. Yeah - thanks guys! You rock! Not.
I've watched with growing concern as they attack and dismantle one important part of my adopted homeland after another. National Education standards and closing down night classes, Paula "I used to be a beneficiary but now I'm not and you losers can all just GET FUCKED" Bennett's attacks on those least able to fight back, increasing GST when they specifically said they wouldn't, tax cuts for their rich mates and to hell with the rest of you, the Auckland Super City undemocratic debacle... the list goes on and on and on - not to mention pushing through a whole raft of new and potentially unpopular legislation under the cloak of "urgency" so they don't even have to discuss it in Parliament and no-one gets the chance to oppose it.
The final two straws that broke this particular camel's back have been their attack on Radio New Zealand's funding, and now - most egregious of all in my opinion - their plans to mine in our National Parks.
I'm so outraged by their mining plans I can't even begin to express how outraged I am. Talk about short-sighted! Do they not have children and grandchildren to whom they'd like to leave the few pieces of pristine wilderness we have left? Apparently not - or at least, if they do, they apparently don't care about them too much.
There are not many things that would get me to leave my nice comfortable life and go chain myself to a bulldozer in protest - but this is certainly one of them. This is our taonga, our heritage, it's what makes us special and unique, and it's what brings in billions of dollars a year in tourism - AND YOU WANT TO DIG IT UP???? You greedy bastards. How dare you???
I actually began my reawakening to political activism by joining the Save Radio New Zealand Facebook group a month or so ago. What a cliché eh? Join a Facebook group and do your bit for the protest! Except that... the group grew so quickly and became so motivated to get up off the couch and actually do something, that the media began to take notice. And the politicians, I think, have also begun to pay attention.
Whether this is because yer average pollie doesn't really "get" social media like Facebook but secretly thinks they should, and they hear that Web2.0 is the Next Big Thing and think they should show some interest so as to get down with da kidz - or whether it's because they also know that for every person who actually gets off their ass and joins a Facebook group (easy though it is to do), there are 100 others standing behind them, agreeing with them, but not actually ever getting round to pressing the blue "join" button, I don't know, but it does actually seem to be having some effect.
Anyway, whatever the reason, people-who-count started taking notice and the Facebook group grew and grew. Hundreds and hundreds of members made comments on the group's page (and continue to do so). Gaining 20,000 members in a little over a month is pretty impressive for our small country, even if it is "just" on Facebook.
It soon became clear that the Save Radio New Zealand people weren't all pointy-headed liberals from Wellington like they said we were - we come from all over the country - the world, even; we come from all kinds of different backgrounds and age groups; and perhaps most importantly for those politicians watching, we come from right across the political spectrum. There are many people in the group who voted National and are now wondering what the heck they signed up for. And they are not happy.
Some interesting things start happening when you join a group of any kind. Firstly you realise you're not alone, and that there are tons of others from all over the place who agree with you. That feels good! It gives you hope! Then someone comes up with an idea for more direct action - and all of a sudden instead of trying to persuade a couple of your mates to demonstrate outside Parliament about this thing you care about, you've got hundreds of people to get motivated with - who already care about the same thing that you do. It's brilliant.
As I walked back to work after the Protest Picnic outside Parliament a few weeks ago, my portable transistor radio still switched on, trailing RNZ's music and words behind me like a stream of bubbles in the breeze, it occurred to me that I felt pretty good having got out there and taken the time to stand up for something I believe in. The last time I did that was the massive protest against the War on Iraq, but that was a long time ago.
It also occurred to me that as I'm a web designer/developer, I have a skill that might be of use to the campaign, and that as part of my activist re-awakening, I could actually do something more to help. That night I registered saveradionz.co.nz and offered my services to the campaign organisers. I've spent the last couple of weeks on WordPress finding and re-styling a suitable theme and writing the first 30-odd pages of the website, and we did a soft launch of the site at the weekend. It's getting a lot of hits already.
It's good to be a part of something, and it's good to be back fighting for what I think is right.
Last night I found Metiria Turei's No mining in NZ's National Parks Facebook group, and all day I've watched the number of members creep up. There's a lot of cross-fertilisation that can happen in a social networking environment (hence the term "networking"), and I know there are many people who, like me, have joined both groups. I know, because I invited a whole bunch of 'em myself! That's another awesome thing about Facebook - the "invite friends to join" function. Talk about helping groups to go viral! It's brilliant!
One of the things an online group can do is to help members fight in all the range of legal ways possible - again it's about getting the information out there and the motivation that comes from being part of that group. The No mining in NZ's National Parks group will be helping us to make submissions to the innocently-named Schedule 4 Stocktake discussion paper, and I'm most definitely making a submission with their help. This is too important an issue to sit by and hope someone else does the protesting for me. I have to do it myself, and I have to make my voice heard in every way I can.
I'm hoping the NIMBY vote will kick in in Auckland, especially about Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel, but there's the risk that (assuming this isn't the most politically stupid move ever) they're announcing these two places first so that they can then "back down" in the face of massive opposition - "ooh look we listened to the people!" - and then quietly go and mine somewhere else like the West Coast or Stewart Island where they think the opposition won't be as strong. We need to stop that from happening, and that means we all have to do our bit - including me.
I renewed my Green Party membership today (and gave them a bit of a donation to help the cause) and I also joined Forest & Bird today. Hey government! You want to stop the Department of Conservation from talking to our oldest and most well-respected conservation group? You want to start gagging people like that? Oh yeah - that's really going to work well. In fact - just because you've done that - I think I'll join them. Go check out the banners on their homepage - they're really cool. I particularly like "Forest & Bird. HYSTERICAL about nature since 1923". Ha!
It seems to me that an issue such as freezing (and thereby in reality, cutting) funding to our only remaining public broadcaster and then expecting a change of mindset at said broadcaster in order to live within those diminishing means - or an issue such as opening up our pristine(ish) wilderness to foreign mining companies so that they can rape and pillage te whenua to their heart's content - has to be shut down fast, shut down hard, and shut down now.
If we don't get off our collective arses and force the government to back down fully on both these issues, then elements of our country, our heritage, our culture and our landscape will be lost, and gone for ever.
As Oscar Wilde once said:What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
...which seems to sum up our current government's mindset pretty well.
...and as Joni Mitchell famously said (or, rather, sang):Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
Technorati tags: Save Radio New Zealand, No Mining in NZ's National Parks, Facebook, conservation, mining, National, ACT, protest, political activism, Radio New Zealand, Forest & Bird, Green Party, environmentalism, social networking, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Working with the Ministry
Earlier on in the year we were given the opportunity to pitch for a re-design job on the Ministry for the Environment's website, which we won. Sue and I were completely thrilled - it's the first Government client that WebWeaver Productions has pitched for (although I've worked on over 50 government websites as a contractor and/or employee), so to win it was pretty darned cool.
Our primary contact was Dee Guja, the Ministry's senior adviser, Stakeholder Engagement/Publications, and we worked on the project with the Ministry's webmaster, Jennifer Geard. Both Dee and Jennifer are very good at their jobs, and as a result the Ministry has become one of our favourite clients - they absolutely rock!
The brief was tricky, to say the least. The Ministry's website is huge - somewhere around 13,000 pages - and the old site was based on a set of Dreamweaver templates which were pretty old and had a bunch of table-based layouts to contend with. Over the years many different MfE employees have added content to the Ministry site, and in some cases the code used to display the same 'look' has been achieved using a variety of techniques - some of which are now out of date and no longer validate.
Our job was to design and build a new set of e-government compliant best-practice Dreamweaver templates which would seamlessly replace the old ones, together with a stylesheet that would not only control the new template HTML, but would restyle all of the old legacy code within the subnav, main content area and feature column so that it would display properly in the design without the Ministry web team having to rewrite the HTML.
Oh - and it needed to be sufficiently robust and all-encompassing so that Jennifer and her team could be confident that all 13,000 pages would display as expected - without having to check every page before go-live.
Sue worked her magic and produced a beautiful new design which was light years away from the old design. I built a set of 11 HTML/CSS templates which I then converted to Dreamweaver templates, matching the editable regions as closely as possible to their existing ones so that when Jennifer came to do the global 'find and replace' that would replace their old templates with our new ones, the site would hold together.
Our test list consisted of 16 different browser/OS combinations (the number has been somewhat reduced since then), which meant I had to get on TradeMe and buy a bunch of old PCs so that I could get the full range of PC operating systems I needed for testing. The completely awesome standalone versions of IE6 and IE7 no longer work properly when you've got IE8 installed, so I needed separate versions of the same OS in order to test all three versions of IE. Oh joy.
The project began back in April, and the site went live in June, which is not bad going for such a large website. Jennifer and her team are working through the site to remove the worst (legacy) examples of non-compliant code, and the new templates were tested for e-govt compliance by Bruce Aylward of W 3 A. He's an expert on website accessibility, and taught me a bunch of new tricks, which I really appreciated.
All in all a great project to be involved with, and a very satisfactory result. We hope you like the Ministry's new website as much as we do.
Technorati tags: Ministry for the Environment, MfE, website, web design, web development, HTML, CSS, WebWeaver Productions, Sue Quigley, Dee Guja, Jennifer Geard, Bruce Aylward, W3A, e-government, accessibility, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
John Key, you confuse me
OK, so that's not really much of a surprise, seeing as there's very little that John Key and I would be able to agree upon. But his latest announcement has me even more confused than usual.
Seems Mr Key wants to encourage loads of expat Kiwis to come home and "plug the brain drain" in order to help us out of the recession.
Call me stupid, but - um - where exactly are the jobs for all these people going to come from? John Key seems to take great delight in booting as many public servants out of their jobs as possible (why do you hate public servants so much, Mr Key?), and has been known to make more public servants redundant in a single day than the total number of jobs saved by his much vaunted 9-day fortnight plan - and yet he now seems to be saying that there are tons of jobs out there for all those highly-educated Kiwis who've left EnZed for pastures new.
I hate to break it to ya, John - but I think you'll find that many of those jobs are either filled already, or no longer exist.
Take my field of expertise for example - the New Zealand IT industry. A year ago it was definitely true that we needed more IT professionals here. I could have walked out of my job a year ago and found 5 great positions within a week. Today that's definitely not the case. I've said before in my blog that if you apply for an IT job these days you'll more than likely be up against hundreds of other people (no exaggeration - apparently a webmaster position advertised at the Ministry of Justice recently garnered 300 applications!).
These days you're lucky to even get an interview in my experience - I've stopped bothering because it's just not worth my time and effort - I'm doing much better with contract and freelance work - but that's not what Key's talking about. He's talking jobs and Kiwis coming home to set up new businesses and suchlike, and I think he's dreaming.
He's certainly not talking about public servant positions (see above!) - by the time he's finished there won't be any of those left at all - and yet it's where a heck of a lot of highly-educated Wellingtonians end up. I know a bunch of ex-public servants who've gone to England to work, and I think some of them do want to come home - but they won't find many openings in Government right now.
So what's he talking about? I think you need to be a lot more specific John - are you talking nurses, teachers, doctors, police etc? I don't think there's much of a chance of persuading expat Kiwis in those professions to come home - you're freezing (already crappy) pay for most of those jobs "in a spirit of working together to help NZ ride out the recession", and I can't imagine many people would give up a job they already have overseas to come home and battle for one here.
Personally, I'd rather all those IT professionals didn't come home right now. There's enough competition around here already, without having to compete with a whole bunch of web designers fresh off the plane from London. Call me selfish, or call me realistic - but I truly don't understand where he thinks these jobs are hiding, when more and more job losses are being announced every week.
Redundancy sucks, but I've found out it's not the end of the world - it can be a new beginning if you're prepared to work at it. But persuading Kiwi expats to leave good jobs overseas to come home in the middle of a recession when they'll be up against all the usual applicants here PLUS a whole bunch of recently-made-redundant job-seekers - I think that's unrealistic, and dishonest, and pretty short-sighted.
Think again, John. This expat Kiwi plan ain't gonna fly.
Technorati tags: Kiwi expats, brain drain, come home, IT profession, redundancy, jobs, public servants, recession, pay freeze, skilled professionals, John Key, politics, New Zealand, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Vote Green!
Haha yeah I know I'm a little late posting this Vote Green! message now :)
I was busy!
I spent yesterday afternoon scrutineering at a polling station on behalf of the Green Party. It was fun! I tried to smile nicely at as many people as I could, just in case they hadn't made up their minds yet and the sight of my nice green rosette and happy grin might encourage them to vote our way. I'm kinda joking here, but on the other hand, I'm kinda not.
In the evening I went over to Lou and Jason's place for our now-traditional election night get-together. It wasn't quite as happy an occasion as it has been for the past few years, but I have to say that the results didn't really come as much of a surprise.
Except for Helen retiring, of course. I hadn't expected that. You'll be missed, Helen! I think you've done a (mostly) excellent job over the past nine years and I'll be sorry to see you go.
I had high hopes for a decent Green Party vote, as the polls had us up to around 10% in the closing days, so I was rather disappointed with the 6.4% that we ended up getting. I'd been quite amazed by the number of friends who spoke to me on Friday and confided that they'd decided to vote Green - way more than I had expected - so I was feeling quite confident about the result (for us, anyway).
One of the arguments I had used in discussions with friends who were in the process of making up their minds was this:
Let's assume that you are of a left-wing persuasion. Let's also assume that you have reviewed the policy positions of both Labour and the Greens, and find significant areas of agreement between the policies of each party and your own beliefs. Who should you vote for?
Putting aside any detailed ideological fit/differences for the sake of this argument, let's look at your vote in purely practical and strategic terms.
If your vote enables the Greens to reach the 5% mark in the Party vote, they will automatically win six seats in Parliament. If you don't vote Green and they get only 4.9%, they will get no seats.
If the Greens win no seats, those six seats will be distributed amongst the larger parties, in proportion to their vote. This means that, depending on the overall National/Labour share of the party vote this year, National would end up getting three or four of those seats, and Labour would get two or three of them.
In terms of a Labour/Green alliance you therefore get more bang for your buck by voting Green because of the 5% threshold rule. A Labour/Green alliance would get the Labour seats + six Green seats in the first scenario, and the Labour seats + two or three distributed seats in the second scenario (with National getting the other three or four).
The added benefit that Labour would get from your vote (if you voted Labour rather than Green) would not be as great as the benefit the Greens would get if you voted for them - because of the leap from zero to six seats once the 5% threshold is reached.
Make sense?
Well, it obviously made sense to a bunch of my friends, considering how many decided to vote Green this year. So I wonder... why such a big difference between the polling numbers and the actual results for the Greens in this election?
Maybe it was such a beautiful day that some greenies were out doing outdoorsy things and didn't get around to voting. Maybe the very good poll numbers led some soft Green voters to conclude that the urgency to vote Green wasn't so strong this year, so they voted Labour instead, concerned that Labour needed help to win.
Maybe our ground game wasn't as good this year due to the high level of interest amongst many political activists in the US elections, possibly resulting in a drop-off in volunteers for the Green campaign.
Now I have no clue whether this last possibility is even accurate - was there less volunteering this year? I have no idea. But I do know it was true for me, much as it embarrasses me to say it.
Last election I delivered targeted Green literature all across my local area. I went to a candidate's meeting. I watched all the debates on telly. I talked Green politics to all and sundry. I scrutineered on election day. If I had had my blog back then I am sure I would have written heaps about the election.
This year I managed a single solitary blog post about our election (in amongst the dozens and dozens on the US Presidential race), spent the afternoon scrutineering, didn't deliver any campaign literature, didn't go to a candidate's meeting and watched not a single moment of a single debate on teevee.
Oh - and I didn't manage to get the "how to strategically vote Green" portion of this post up until AFTER the election. Brilliant.
Bad webweaver! Sowwy Greens! I hope I was the only one. I did manage to give away a bunch of your very cool stickers on Friday, though...
Oh - one last thing.
Ironically enough, the exact same strategic argument I'd been using to encourage people to vote Green, would also have helped a Labour-led coalition that included Winston Peters and New Zealand First.
Assuming that he'd have wanted to team up with Labour and the Greens (and maybe the Maori Party), if NZ First had got over 5%, it would actually have been a much closer race, and Labour potentially could have challenged National in terms of which party would be able to form a government.
However...
I'm sorry to say that my extreme dislike of Winston is so strong that it trumps my need to win (or to be on the winning side). I just couldn't bring myself to cheer on NZ First, willing them to break through the 5% mark. I couldn't do it, even thought I knew logically I should.
Sorry Winston - I think you're a liar and a cheat, a narcissistic egotistical snake in the grass. I wouldn't trust you further than I could throw you, and I'm glad to see the back of you.
I believe that those we choose to represent us in Parliament owe us at least the decency of telling us the truth, and as you are the most egregious liar of them all, I'm not at all sorry to say goodbye.
Actually two last things - here's the second one:
Minutes before John Key came in to do his victory speech, the TV3 coverage at the National Party HQ showed what appeared to be two drunken, rich, rather obnoxious-looking male National Party supporters, waving their glasses of wine around and mugging for the camera.
A minute later one of them came into camera-view again, this time dragging an equally pissed-looking and jewellery-dripping female supporter with him.
I wailed to Jason "Oh noes! I don't want rich fat white men ruling my country for the next three years!" to which Jason replied "I hope a few people who voted for National this time around saw that and regretted what they'd done today". Meh :)
Technorati tags: New Zealand, election, Green Party, Greens, Labour, polls, results, analysis, Helen Clark, Winston Peters, political party, proportional representation, MMP, 5%, 6.4%, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Changing one's political affiliation
Seeing as I haven't said a word yet about the upcoming general election here in New Zealand, I suppose I really should - seeing as it's now exactly a week away.
I know who I'm voting for - I always know who I'm voting for. I don't really understand how anyone can be undecided - but then that's because politics is intrinsically a part of me, and something that I cannot separate from who I am. I know most people don't give politics that level of importance in their lives, which is why I suppose they are sometimes able to switch from voting "left" to voting "right" or vice versa - something that I can't imagine doing.
Having said that, I do understand how you might change party affiliation if your party undergoes a transformation so drastic that you feel it no longer represents your beliefs and ideals.
An example for me would be Old Labour vs New Labour in the UK.
For all the years I was living in the UK and old enough to vote, I voted Labour. They were my party, the party that most closely reflected my views. I was proud to vote for them, although I was never on the winning side. Like many ex-Poms, I eventually became utterly demoralised by 17 years of Thatcher destroying what (at that time) was still my country. God I hated that woman.
I was travelling in the US when Thatcher was ousted as leader of the Conservative Party. It was Thanksgiving Day, and we certainly gave serious thanks that day!
A year and a half later I was travelling in New Zealand as the 1992 general election took place back in the UK, and did not vote, but I felt sure (as did most other people) that it was Labour's turn again at last, and that John Major's Conservative party would not prevail. Except that the unthinkable happened. Labour lost, the Conservatives won, and no-one could believe what had just happened.
I vividly remember sitting on the deck of Abracadabra, the 2-person yacht I was preparing to crew to New Caledonia. I was reviewing the election results in the international edition of The Daily Telegraph, practically weeping with frustration at Labour's inability to win the race. It was the day that Old Labour died, and it was also the day that I "resigned" from being English: "If the British people are so bloody stupid that they vote that lot in again, then they deserve everything they get, and I shall no longer consider myself to be English. That's it - I quit."
Fast-forward 5 years to May 1997. I had by that time become a (very proud) New Zealander, but I still watched every minute of the UK election on TV, having taken the day off work just so I could follow the results as they unfolded. It was such an amazing day. All the baddies lost their seats, all the goodies won theirs, and Tony Blair led a triumphant New Labour into power with the most seats the party's ever held. Awesome!
The honeymoon, however, was short. Maybe a year? Maybe 18 months? I don't really remember how long it was until I saw the cracks beginning to show, but I do know that I increasingly began to feel (albeit from a distance) that Blair's policies, and those of New Labour, no longer matched my political beliefs in the way that Old Labour had.
The final straw for me was Blair's friendship with Bush and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The day that 8 million of us around the world marched against the upcoming war, I remember knowing in my heart that neither Blair nor Bush gave a shit about what we thought, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they would invade Iraq, and that nothing we could do or say would stop them.
Had I bothered to vote in the UK elections that followed the 1997 triumph, I would not have voted Labour. They had become too right-wing. They had left me. I would have chosen instead to vote for the Liberal Democrats, the only major UK party which opposed the war on Iraq.
But I'm a Kiwi now - have been for 16 years - and so I vote in New Zealand elections. I sometimes miss the energy and commitment of the British people when it comes to politics. It's not nearly as intense here, and for someone who cut her teeth on the never-ending political debates in the local British pub (and everywhere else), I find the laid-back Kiwi attitude to politics a trifle lacklustre at times. What I do appreciate, though, is MMP.
With MMP (Mixed Member Proportional representation), you get two votes - a party vote and an electorate vote.
The national percentage of party votes that each party gets will determine the number of Parliamentary seats they are given (out of a total of 120 seats). Any party that receives at least 5% of the national party vote is guaranteed at least 6 seats in Parliament. If your party gets less than 5% of the party vote, you don't get any seats at all - unless at least one of your representatives wins in an electorate.
With your electorate vote you vote for a local MP. The outcome of the electorate vote is decided using the First Past the Post (FPP) method - whoever wins the most votes in an electorate wins the seat.
When I first came to New Zealand we were using the traditional FPP method of electing our Parliament, so in my first NZ election in 1993 I voted Labour. National won the election (but only just). Damn!
The 1996 election was the first in which we had MMP, and so my options were somewhat broader. The beauty of MMP is that smaller parties are infinitely more likely to get seats in Parliament than they are under FPP - because you only have to reach 5% of the total party vote.
In 1996 I voted Labour/Labour, which was somewhat of a bummer because National won the majority of the party votes and the odious Richard Prebble from ACT won my local seat of Wellington Central.
*sigh* I had been voting since 1983 and I had yet to vote for the winning party.
In 1999 I changed my vote. The Green Party had been formed in 1995, and at last here was a party with which I was in agreement virtually 100% of the time. Wow. This was a unique experience, as even with Old Labour back in the UK there had been occasions where my party and I disagreed.
I voted Green/Labour in 1999, in the hope that my Green party vote would help the Greens get to 5%, with my Labour electoral vote hopefully defeating Mr Prebble in Wellington Central. At last - after so many years of not getting to vote for a winner - both my votes came up trumps!
We got rid of Prebble in Welli Central, and after a nail-biting couple of weeks while the special votes were counted, it was announced that the Greens had reached 5.16% - and our co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons had also won her electorate seat in the Coromandel. Hooray!
I've voted that way ever since. I know that my electorate vote would not prevail if I voted Green in Welli Central - although we are the Greenest electorate in the country (I think we got 19% of the party vote last time) - so I vote Labour in order to help keep the National guy out - but I am very proud indeed to vote Green with my party vote. We're looking OK in the polls at the moment - we're on 7.5%, so I hope that either stays constant or increases in the next week. We shall see.
I don't imagine I will change my party affiliation again. When I left Labour in the UK it was because the party as a whole had moved further right than I was comfortable with, and I could no longer support them. Had there been MMP in the UK I would have chosen to vote Green, but with FPP they didn't stand a chance, so, had I remained in the UK, I would have voted Lib Dem as a reasonable alternative.
When I switched from Labour to Green in NZ, it was once again because the brand-new Green Party represented my strong left-wing views better than Labour did - and with MMP I knew my vote had a chance of making a difference.
I remember once sitting in a pub in England debating politics with a group of friends. I was probably around 20 years old at the time. An older guy somehow became involved in our discussion, and very condescendingly told me that "Everyone's left-wing when they're young and idealistic. When you're older and wiser you'll move to the right - just like everyone else does. You'll see sense in time."
I indignantly told him that I was left-wing then, and that I would remain left-wing all my life, because, to me, the policies, ideals and beliefs of the political Left are the only ones that make sense. They are the policies, ideals and beliefs that I share, and about which I care very deeply. I told him I "saw sense" then, and I would "see sense" all my life - and that I would always view life through the eyes of a left-wing idealist.
If you're reading this, Mr-condescending-right-wing-non-idealist older-dude - see? I was right (or perhaps that should be left). On the two occasions I have changed parties it's been either because my party left me (by moving right), or because a better alternative presented itself. Left-wing is where I belong, and left-wing is where I'll stay. Hooray!
If you're not entirely sure who to vote for in the upcoming New Zealand election, perhaps you'd like to try the Pundit Election Quiz. It's modelled on the award-winning US version, and is a very quick and easy way of determining which party most represents your views. Choose which issues you most care about, respond to a series of statements, and find out which party is best for you and why.
I'll give you three guesses which party came closest to matching mine...
Don't forget to vote!
Technorati tags: New Zealand election, Green Party, Greens, Labour, UK election, Old Labour, New Labour, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, George Bush, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Richard Prebble, Wellington Central, MMP, FPP, vote, party, electorate, New Zealand politics, Pundit, Election Quiz, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
My blog's more popular than John Key's blog...
This cracked me up.
The other day over at Tumeke! they posted the nz blogosphere rankings: January 2008. I've visited Tumeke! before, but didn't know they were doing the rankings - I found them by following a link off my SiteMeter stats.
So of course, as you do, you do a bit of ego-scrolling to find where you are in the NZ rankings.
First comes Kiwiblog (#1) (sigh) followed by Public Address (#2) (yaay!) and frogblog (#3) (yaay!). Then there are a bunch of others including a couple of my favourites like No Right Turn (#6), and Just Left (#15).
Scroll down a bit further and you come to WebWeaver's World (that's me!) at #31 (up from #40 - gawd, it's like when I was watching my favourite single run up the charts when I was a kid!)... and right behind my blog, at #32, is none other than John Key's blog.
*Sniffle snort choke gasp*
I find it absolutely hysterical (and rather amazing) that (in the month of January at least) more people were interested in reading what I ramble on about, than were interested in what the Leader of the Opposition had to say. And I didn't even write much in January - a grand total of 5 posts in fact.
Also not-as-popular as me were The Fundy Post (#33), the Maori Party (#50), the execrable dad4justice (#51), United Future (#56), Bill English (#68), ACT on Campus (#75), and Alliance New Zealand (unrated). Plus a whole lot more.
In case any of you are now certain (as if you weren't already) that I am nothing more than a great big giant ego, let me reassure you that I write this with my tongue firmly in my cheek - while at the same time being quietly amazed (OK, perhaps not so quietly!) that my little old blog is doing so well. It's a million miles away from the number of visitors who spend time at the most popular New Zealand blogs, but still... it makes me happy!
Technorati tags: blogs, blogging, New Zealand blogs, ranking, nz blogosphere ranking, Tumeke, John Key, Public Address, frogblog, No Right Turn, Just Left, Kiwiblog, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.
