Posts by Jackie Clark
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Yes but it still wouldn't be Oriental Bay now, would it?
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I thought about best and worst Christmases, alot, and I couldn't honestly say that I have ever had a Christmas I didn't like. The ones in England were okay because I had them with friends. They weren't the same, but not many people can say that in 44 years, they've only had 2 Christmases away from their family - and so it transpires that much as I tried to find funny stories about disastrous Christmas days, there just weren't any. I like Christmas. Always have, always will, perhaps because I have a huge family and we all get together every year, and every year it's the same, and I love that. Since Dad died a couple of years ago, not much has changed, although my mother thought it might. We all still want to go to her place to hang out together, there are very few arguments, if any, we still all enjoy each others' company greatly (some of us have had to admit that there are some members of our family we would be friends with even if we weren't related) and there's the bonus of swimming when/if it gets hot. Yes, I do love Christmas.
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worse still is when you post & everyone ignores what you've said & starts carries on the discussion as if you hadn't commented at all!
Sing it sister. Bit pathetic after 13 odd years on the worldwide social tool we call the internet, but yes, I still feel a bit miffed when I've said something I think is valid, and it gets ignored. Still, as a woman over 40 in this society, it's something I'm getting used to happening offline more and more often. <sob>. Back to the question at hand though, I feel sometimes on this site the pressure to be witty and learned may stop some from posting. I guess the trick is not to give a toss, and if you have something to say, just say it. Words are fabulous things - you let them out of your brain, your mouth, your soul and you never know where they will land, and who they will strike a chord with.
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I'm of the view, Jolisa, that some more women posting and positing here would be a very good move, indeed. I used to be an avid Unifem, and I used to be hugely concerned by governmental politics. These days I'm more into the personal and particular. I address gender inequity in my teaching, and I've become terminally bored with global politics. I like PAS because it makes for interesting reading and interesting debate, and yet........I feel the lack of women posters sorely. My friends are women, my colleagues at work are women - female-centric, mayhaps, but that's the way my life is. I enjoy men too, but I enjoy the company of women far more, I enjoy their stories, and for me, a bit more of that here could only be a good thing.
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I grew up with a best friend who was Chinese from Vietnam, and know that Canterbury at least is not an easy place for any Asian to live without racism.
That's the quote from Tamsin that I was referring to. I wasn't at all saying that all Cantabrians are racist, of course I wasn't. Tamsin was referring to Canterbury, and so therefore did I. What I was mostly commenting on, I guess, is that Tamsin lives in the UK in a cosmopolitan city where a large proportion of people are not of British birth, nor origin. I know quite a number of British people who have spoken of their fear of "our little island sinking under the weight of all these immigrants" and other pretty xenophobic remarks. Who are, in fact, leaving the UK for those very reasons. I was simply suprised that Tamsin was uncomfortable with racism in NZ when she's living in a country where there is a groundswell of people who are expressing xenophobia, racism if you will, in very overt ways. Once again, this is not to excuse racism in NZ, just to wonder that if one's criteria for a desirable place to live is one that is minimally racist, I wouldn't necessarily pick UK as my first choice. I do apologise Emma and other fine Mainlanders if you got the wrong impression!
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I live in London, and this is the kind of stuff that makes me wonder if I can ever truly come home.
Are you saying that you can't come home because it's so racist here? I would suggest that's a Cantabrian thing (the racism). Not to mention, you know you're living in London, and that that's in the UK, right? Cos if racism is one of the indicators you use to determine where you live............
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I was only a 13-year-old Form 2 student at Gisborne Intermediate in '81, but I remember the tour extremely vividly
Well, like Rob, I was in the 7th form, that year. And I had to go and protest because I had been studying apartheid for a number of years, of my own volition, and besides which, my mum and two of my sisters were going, so it was kind of a family outing. One of my sisters was heavily pregnant, and my father, who was in Germany on business at the time, rang my mother and yelled and screamed that we weren't to go, that my sister had to think of her baby. He was incensed about the whole thing. Which gave us even more reason to go, so bolshy are the Clark women. We set off, and got to Fowlds Park to join the throng, and then I believe we marched across the Morningside railway lines and down one of those streets off Morningside Drive. I don't remember that part too well, but what I do remember is police officers walking alongside us as we chanted. And some of them singing along with us. Which prepared us well for the riot squad at the end of the road, blocking us from getting at Eden Park. Scary buggers, and very very young. And the pregnant sister I mentioned? Up there in front, yelling at them " Your mothers would be ashamed of you". Poor buggers. No-one should be put in that situation. Some of them looked like possums caught in the headlights. The rest is history, really. But I will always remember the singing policemen.
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Jealous, jealous, jealous. Even though 1)I don't like crowds and 2)I don't drink and 3)I turn into a pumpkin after midnight....I do love me a good Blam.
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Tze Ming, all the best to you. Sad it is to see another woman departing - there aren't enough here, and sometimes discussion can be a little male-centric. What with all the brainy boys that hang around and can be bothered to converse about f***knows what. Not something that can be helped, really, but you will be missed by all the women here, I think. I can't imagine you in Geneva - I lived in Vevey, and I know how very stultifying the Canton of Vaud can be. Subversion is the key, I suspect. In which case, subvert till it hurts........we'll just miss your brand of it here.
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JP, I completely agree about Californication. Witty, clever, dry. I do like David Duchovny. And did anyone else see the Filth and the Fury on C4 last night. Bloody good. I wasn't into the Sex Pistols, and I think Rotten is a bit of a wanker, but it was a really honest look at the whole phenomenon, I thought.