Wow. My own little corner of cyberspace. No, seriously, wow.
Let me begin by thanking publicaddress for the opportunity to be read a little more widely than the occasional rant in the letters to the editor. And, if you're one of the people who've sent in encouraging notes since that first guest post in May, I'd also like to thank you for the support.
I think if I can say anything about the blogsphere is that it's the alternative commentary medium I've been wanted to participate in for a long while now. Publishing in something like 'green left weekly' may be all good and well, it just doesn't have the cachet of the web. Maybe in the future this will all be passe, but for now any emails I get are exciting enough to be sent to a folder called 'I am so vain' (because they must be fan mail, right?).
Oh, and speaking of fan mail, if you haven't heard 'dirty fan mail' on trunk records, find it. I may not have ever been so shocked and laughed so hard all the same time in my short life. If any of you ever send me an email like the ones these guys read, I may be forced to giggle.
So why Club Politique? After canvassing this site I thought I'd try and restrict my commentary to my own field of research and apply it to the real world of politics. I know that makes me sound like a fledgling, but compared to the company I'm in I do seem to be the newbie. And if you've happened to read the comments I made as a guest you may have noticed a mild preoccupation with politics, so I'll try not to disappoint any potential regulars.
I suppose that leaves you wondering then what kind of research informs my politics. My PhD thesis is titled "The National Cell: Minority nation-building in settler nation-states". Wordy? Yup. Easy to read? Dunno. Complete? Soon, so very soon. As I write this I should be finishing the last 7k words of case study. But some procrastination pays off.
In a nutshell I'm looking at the specific rights of minority groups in countries like New Zealand and Australia, and making arguments against the type of xenophobia-masked-as-liberal-egalitarianism espoused by the person who wrote the Orewa speech. Oh, and by the way, if you're that person, a special thanks to you too. If you hadn't made our man Don out to be such a tea-planter I never would have got it together to write the email to RB that got this ball rolling.
There's a ribbon-bedecked basket of strawberry lamingtons and a Devonshire tea on the way as a thank you.
Anyhow, politics being what it is pollies world-wide tend to loose sight of the bigger picture sometimes, being more interested in the networking and the paycheck. I reckon that it's the obligation of people like webloggers to remind them occasionally that what's all to often missing from government is thought.
Sure, there's lots of pragmatism, but that key area of thinking things through to their (il)logical conclusion seems to be suffocated by time constraints and bureaucratic chaos.
Having stated this, stepping up to the crease is now no small ask. But you can only do your best, right?
So welcome one, welcome all. May your funny bone be tickled, and your brain bone be challenged. In the immortal words of The Avalanches, "get a drink, have a good time now, welcome to [le club politique]".