Posts by George Darroch
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And I too. I honestly can't remember reading any New Zealand long-form fiction since high school a decade ago. Poetry, in great measure, and short stories in collection.
I made a thing of only reading fiction that had had glowing recommendations from people I knew in person, or whose judgement I trusted greatly. The quality improved, but the quantity diminished. I'm only recently arrived back in the country, and long stopped reading the Listener, so its books pages are gone to me. Does the Metro have review pages that illuminate, dissect and inspire?
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Really hoping that's a euphemism.
No, absolute truth.
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forced drinking straight off the plane and unruly saloons full of stetsons.
Dude, that _is_ my experience of Vancouver Airport. I had an enthusiastic Canadian forcing me to drink clam juice before I landed.
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For me, therea are degrees of homeness. I hope this post doesn't make anyone dizzy.
There's a large home in Māngere, where I spent the first 19 years of my life, still occupied by my parents. It, and the rest of Auckland still fits me like a warm glove
Wellington felt like home within a few months of moving there, it had so thoroughly encapsulated me. Interestingly enough, when I return there now I feel entirely like a visitor. There are more distant homelands; Nelson, Otago, the Far North; all places my family has lived. Blueskin Bay is where the namesake ancestor rowed ashore and I spent the summer of '04.
And most recently, Australia has started to feel like home. Canberra I lived in for three years, wanting to leave the entire time, and then Brisbane and Melbourne, places I chose to set down in.
Though I'm not there presently, I feel like I'm only visiting. I'd started to feel thoroughly Australian after four years, a prospect that filled other kiwis I talked to with horror. My Nu Zild accent was ways light to begin with as a result of my middle class parentage and living extensively with internationals in NZ and Australia. After two years or so I'd consciously shifted my vowels and injected a little Strayan, people would hardly pick where I was from, frequently thinking the UK. I couldn't understand New Zealand accents, and John Key sounded very strange. After a few weeks back here, I've unjumbled the speech patterns, and theirs and mine are more familiar.
Unlike Deborah, who would talk about "moments of enculturation" in her children, and how she pined for home, I still felt malleable enough to pick things up and embrace them as mine. Last year I read this thoughtful piece by Simon Grigg, and it resonated. I'd started to feel a little stateless. I'm perhaps less so now, by virtue of being 'home' in Māngere, but it stays with me.
So now, I'm a New Zealander, who lives in Australia, who is living in New Zealand. I intend to return within the year, for an indefinite period of time. That might change....
Home for me is ultimately where you have to stand, and where you face. An immutable place, and a referential one.
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If we accept that cuts are needed to reduce our long-term deficit, then we need to accept that some of them will fall on things that we consider to be worthwhile.
The necessity of cuts for deficit reduction is not a premise I accept. There's money around, it's just distributed differently than it was 3 years ago.
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we were looking last night into cashing in all our frequent flier miles to escape for the duration - but it seems that most of the dates a blacked out .... we're trapped
I would have thought there would be some overcapacity with flights into and then out of NZ on certain dates. Probably not enough to help though. Domestic flight is going to be a pain too.
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Ah, perhaps I'm not that cynical.
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I can't be bothered getting angry about this. The New Zealand Labour Party refused to make international agreements a matter for parliament rather than the executive (as they are, ironically, in the United States). There's a chance to soften the worst parts of this, but the die is cast. Cabinet will do what it wants.
My only hope is that we agree to this, in its almost entirely, and that the next government with half a spine pulls us out unilaterally.
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In truth, some journalists did mention Arie's condition in passing, but no one saw fit to ask questions.
Speaking truth to power eh? Who wants to stand up for a 'looter'... better to meekly pretend that everything is normal.
Oh, and let's not forget the role of the FUCKING MINISTER OF POLICE here.
Police Minister Judith Collins said the actions of looters was akin to "people who rob the dead".
She expected to see the judiciary throw the book at looters.
"I hope they go to jail for a long time - with a cellmate."
NZHerald, via NoRightTurn.
The Minister of Police, explicitly soliciting violence, possibly rape.
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There's an interesting discussion going on over at Kiwipolitico, with Pablo asking why NZ lacks so much he can take for granted overseas, and Lew replying. Lew knows a lot more about the NZ media environment than I do, but I think his assertion that New Zealand is too poor and underpopulated to sustain a quality media environment is underwhelming.
I don't feel like I know enough to challenge him on his own turf, however. One thing I can say about our current circumstance is that nothing is accidental. Value judgments have been made, and our environment results from those.