Posts by Lara
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if he ate his ballot while in the booth
Heh.
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The boxes at our booth were rearranged within the first hour, which led to far fewer mistakes. We also had someone on the door directing people to the correct table. It was an interesting study in human behaviour really. I should point out that I was there scrutineering, so had plenty of time to people watch (while feeling distinctly illicit with my rosette on).
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the signs behind us, that say which electorate we’re issuing votes for, are invisible. As are the signs on, and behind, the ballot boxes. This happens, over and over again:
Me: …and when you’re done, the papers go…
Voter: *walks away*
Me: IN THE PORT HILLS… fuck.
Voter: *comes out of the booth, walks past the Port Hills boxes, shoves votes in the Chch East boxes*
This. So. Many. Times.
Also, the number of purple referendum papers put into orange boxes....wow.
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I had a very lovely voting experience. I scrutineered for two hours in the morning, and came back and voted after lunch. Then I did a brief spell of the 'Have you been able to vote today' variety of door knocking this evening. It was great!
A brickbat: the election official who laughed at a friend of mine when she was trying to work out how to do a special vote (I had just spent some time persuading this person to vote at all and she was made to feel stupid when she is in fact a brilliantly clever lady :( )
Did anyone else find that the electoral commission's electorate map has been failing to load? Or is it just me?
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The reaction by RNZ seems completely OTT. I usually enjoy listening to Bomber on the Panel. Having him on the show made such a nice change from the usual tone of the programme (which tends to be too ‘get off my lawn’-esque for my taste).
If RNZ is to be balanced, it has to include a range of voices. Bomber’s opinions may not be to the liking of everyone all the time, but neither are those of Stephen Franks (for example). I hope that RNZ reconsider, but in the current environment I do not think that is likely.
Disclaimer (of sorts): I became interested in politics as a teenager largely because of Channel Z’s Talkback with Bomber. He made politics interesting and relevant to me. He made changing the world seem possible. And that was pretty cool. So I'm probably more than a bit biased.
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Long comment is long. And rambling. Sorry.
September.....how was I feeling in September? Shocked, running on adrenaline and sunlight and digging. Reassured that this was apparently as bad as it was going to get. Pleased, proud even, of how well this city had stood up. Relieved that no one had died as a direct result. Sorry for those bereaved by the plane crash on the West Coast, who were quickly forgotten after 4.35am. Had I known that six months later it would be so much worse.....I would never have had the guts to stay here.
After September 4 I moved out all the boxes under my bed and put them in the middle of the floor. I slept under my bed most of that first night, stocked up the space with a box of chocolates, a torch, a bottle of water and a good book. If you're prepared for the ceiling to fall in, it won't happen, right? Now the chocolates are gone, the water bottle cleaned out, the torch batteries dead. But the books are still there and the boxes are still in the middle of the floor. I'm not sure why, being so conditioned to aftershocks it is doubtful that I'd make a dive for that space again. But now there's always a question of Another Big One. If you're prepared for another one, it won't happen, right?
I remember the noise, huddling as far as I could under my bed, the incredible darkness outside, the rushing water, my feet sinking into what we thought was sewage (which we now know as liquefaction mixed with water from a broken pipe). I still remember one of the people across the road from us hammering on our next door neighbour's door yelling her name. And the brilliant sunshine the next day, impervious.
That is September as I remember it. In reverse order, because that is the way I remember it. Starting with the general, rolling back to those moments in time.
It was the next day, I think, maybe the Monday. I was digging liquefaction with the SVA at the next door neighbour's place. One of my fellow shovelers had a tattoo on her wrist. It read 'Always find a reason to smile.' I hope we do.
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181 people (not 163) died in Chch.
I have to say that I will be glad when this year is over. For me its highs do not match its lows. Although it has still got a few more months to run, and who knows what they may hold? Good things, I hope.
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@ Hilary, so far as I know charges against Michael have also been dropped. Fantastic news on both counts.
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I find the second hour of Checkpoint more interesting. The news from overseas tends to end up in the half hour before seven and I wish there was more of it. It is nice to be reminded that we do not live in a bubble! I do listen to the whole two hours of Checkpoint, but that's partially because I always have the radio on while mucking about with the horses each evening.
I am coming to the conclusion that I don't like Simon Mercep's style on Morning Report. I turn it on in the morning, but often end up turning it off. Previously I only used to do that if the interviewee was particularly infuriating; now it's the interviewer.
I found Chris Laidlaw's (I think it was him) interview with Richard Griffin a few weeks back rather troubling. Radio NZ is invaluable. It is disturbing (but not surprising) that the current government sees it as a service that a) It needn't bother to show up on and b) one that should be whittled down into uselessness.
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Since it's Friday, and this makes me laugh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=bkzsoJf-UsA&vq=large