As Fi Bows to Peer Pressure

Proud to say that Liam Finn’s ‘Gather to the Chapel’ features on Season 5 Episode 15 of Grey’s Anatomy for the ‘in chapel’ scene.

Liam Finn is, of course, Neil Finn’s (of Split Enz and Crowded House fame) son and one of the complete legends who call NZ home. He was the frontman for Betchadupa (those were the days) and released his solo album in 2007. My lovely parents bought me the album, knowing how much I love random NZ music and it’s been one of my favs ever since. Major props to Liam for getting the song onto such a hit show’s soundtrack in what is going to be a killer episode - I’ll say no more about that.

Some of my favourite NZ politicians are stepping down as MPs and have given valedictory speeches over the past few days. They have done more and tried harder than the average Kiwi gives them credit for and it is sad to see them go. 

More about this later when I get home but I’m outraged at the continuing insanity in Fiji. The latest being the shutdown of freedom of speech.

“Over the past year some media reporting have left much to be desired and some reports have been careless, irresponsible and some in fact have been inciteful and destabilizing, posing a threat to national security and stability,” Bainimarama said.

They were intent on “sowing discontent and discord in name of media freedom”. He demanded that media abide by a code of ethics and stop their “confrontational and negative” reporting.

The website of the top circulation daily, The Fiji Times, reports police and immigration officials have taken their publisher, Australian citizen Evan Hannah, from his home in the Suva suburb of Tamavua.

This is our backyard and it’s falling apart. I’ll explain more later and discuss some of the other problems but this just makes me outraged that the whole thing is continuing.

I have today off work. I am going to Sir Ed’s remembrance service at Windsor Castle (I have a pretty invitation from Buckingham Palace) to hang out with loads of other Kiwis (they’ve invited like 400 of us I hear) and remember a pretty cool and inspiring guy. I’m pretty stoked at the opportunity.

Off to tidy room now. Grand.

Like many Kiwis, I was deeply upset by the recent case of little Nia. What I find so deeply depressing is that this, like youth suicide, is a really difficult issue to tackle because at the core of it, it requires attitude change not legislative change. While I have had some problems with these organisations, I think this might be a very powerful action. I’m not living in New Zealand but I promise that at 1:12am I will be standing and thinking about it along with everyone else (1:12am is a silly time to stand around outside in a tiny village in the middle of England). Child abuse is rife in New Zealand,  how did we let it get this far? You can be the change by letting everyone you know know that child abuse is not ok. Every individual counts and this could be a very powerful stand if enough people join in. I urge you to join Kiwis everywhere as they take a stand at 12:12pm today.

 

 *Nationwide Stand Against Child Abuse - This Wednesday, 12:12pm*

Family First NZ , For the Sake of Our Children Trust and the Sensible Sentencing Trust have joined together to call on all NZ’ers to stand against child abuse this Wednesday.                                       
                                                                                                                                                      
They are asking NZ’ers to stop whatever they are doing - to come out onto the street, outside the office or classroom, to stop their car or truck and stand outside their vehicle - and make a symbolic ‘stand’ against child abuse for three minutes at 12:12pm, this Wednesday 8 August.                        
                                                                                                                                                       
The three minutes represents the three short years of little Nia’s life, and the number 12 is significant as it represents the months of the year where children are abused, neglected and killed in NZ.                    
                                                                                                                                                
The three short minutes is an opportunity for each person to reflect on what each one of us can do to be part of the solution to our unacceptable rate of child abuse .   

 

Spread the word, the more people involved the stronger this action will be. 

Mark has questioned the spending of $34 million on Team New Zealand, saying it should have been spent on health or education. It got me thinking because while I agree in principle, it seemed a tad more complex than that. Here’s my thinking on it . . .

It is possible for states to spend their entire budget on health and/or education and still not get it right by a long stretch. In the NZ health budget, $34 million would add only 0.0032% to the total, while in the education budget it adds 0.0059%. Such a small amount in relation to the total makes it incredibly difficult to spend effectively and in the right places for the majority.

When making decisions on budget allocations, it’s about maximising welfare and ensuring effective spending. While I agree NZAID could really have done a lot with that $34 million, it appears a huge number of New Zealanders all over the world were keen enough on watching the America’s Cup and seeing us do well that a government injection of cash would benefit the “happiness” of Kiwis worldwide. I know from watching the AC website that there were Kiwis everywhere sending in messages of support. We’re a sporting nation, whether we like it or not, and this event is the oldest active trophy in international sport. We’re a sailing nation and we need to show young sailors that there is something to aspire to.

I guess what I’m saying is that in some ways this was a smart move for a Government that wants to invest in something we do well in (we won the Louis Vuitton Cup after all), in nationalism, and in providing something to aspire to for New Zealand’s young sailors. One can always say “the money should have been spent in x and y”, but it’s more difficult in this case to say that the money could have been spent more effectively in x and y.

We just lost the America’s Cup by 1 second.

What can I say?

Vote now for which places you want to be included in the new NZ version of Monopoly. You can vote once every day until Feb 10th, so get voting for your favourite places. What trivial fun!

http://www.nzmonopoly.co.nz/

 

P.S I do still exist, just don’t have any time ever these days. Will update and email asap! Love to all! 

The resignation of Don Brash as Leader of the National Party came as no particular surprise to me, however I must admit that in some ways I’m sad to see him go, oddly enough. Although his time was definitely drawing to an end, I feel sorry for him in that his real goals were never realised. I guess for me the thing is that he’s been the National Party Leader for the time when I was most involved in NZ politics and so for better or worse, he’s the one that I associate with the National Party. I never saw eye-to-eye with his policies and I hated the fact that he rolled Bill English, but he was the leader and for that commanded some level of respect. My best wishes go to him, his family, and the party.

In other news, former Russian Spy Alexander Litvinenko has died and 160 people have been killed in car bombings in Baghdad. My prayers are with the families of all those who lost family members today, for whatever reason, wherever they may be.

This story was linked to on the front page of the BBC news website, my new homepage and usually an excellent source for important current events. *Thanks* to BBC for bothering to publish this . . .

 

A New Zealand clergyman has been dubbed the “knicker-vicar” for coming to the aid of women in his town who found themselves with a brief problem.

Concern was raised when the only clothing shop in the small North Island town of Inglewood stopped selling women’s underwear.

So the Reverend Gary Husband proposed starting a regular “knickers-run” to the nearby city of New Plymouth.

“We get all the essentials here - apart from the ladies’ essentials,” he said.

The first run is planned before Christmas and, if successful, could be become a regular monthly event, he added.

‘Positive response’

He said he came up with the idea after the problem was brought to his attention by women in his congregation.

“Someone came up with the point that it was a bit difficult that ladies essentials were not able to be bought in Inglewood,” he told National Radio.

“So we’re going to have what’s been called a knickers run.”

Volunteers will take anyone without transport the 20km (12 miles) from Inglewood to New Plymouth.

Rev Husband said the scheme was open to all, regardless of faith.

“This is for the community… the response has been positive, we’ve had one (other) denomination get in touch with us, so it’s spreading.”
 

Given that many of my Passfield buddies are also BBC news website fans, I think I shall have some explaining to do. I’m a little lost as to why the BBC is covering this.