Now it's time for a change

The problem with democracy is that people who don't agree with me get to vote. I hope three years of a National/ACT government will show them the error of their ways.

10 good things about the election

1. I live in a democracy where I have the right to vote, I can vote without intimidation, voting is easy, accessible and popular*, and I am confident that all votes are fairly counted.
   
2. Winston Peters is finally out of parliament \o/
   
3. I voted in H & K's classroom surrounded by their, and their classmates, art.
   
4. There'll be at least two more Green MPs in parliament.
   
5. A fairy queen and a fairy princess came with me to vote.
6. I am now represented by an openly gay MP.
   
7. The way the National party got in was by backing most changes Labour have introduced.
   
8. I'm told there is a better quality of political comedy under right wing governments.
   
9. MMP continues to encourage diversity in parliment. For the first time there will be a Sikh MP.
   
10. I got to use a big fat orange pen.

* 78% turnout of registered voters.

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

Last night we huddled around a laptop and watched Obama make political history in America and then went outside and let of fireworks to mark political history in England. It's not that it is so much a small world as that we are at one end of the binoculars and the USA and UK are at the other.

It was a dark and stormy day

On the 10th of April 1968 there was a storm in Wellington which killed 54 people. A passenger ferry, the Wahine, sank killing 51 people. Two more passengers died as a result of their injuries after returning home, and one little girl died in bed at home when a sheet of corrugated iron blew through her window. The Wahine storm happened before I was born but I have grown up with the stories and here, for the fortieth anniversary, are three of those stories.

My father had recently returned to New Zealand bringing my mother with him. They were staying at my grandma's house in Eastbourne, just across the harbour from the centre of Wellington. My mother had been warned about Wellington southerlies. My grandma had even said that the front fence was getting pretty rickety and it would probably blow down in the next decent southerly and so, when it did, she was not particularly alarmed. It was only when she went for a walk on the beach and saw the lifeboats that she realised that there was something unusual going on.

My stepfather-in-law, DB, was working as a builder on a house in Seatoun, a part of Wellington which is very exposed. When it became clear that the wind was making working dangerous the foreman sent the crew home. The noise of the wind as he went home is something DB will never forget. So many sheets of roofing iron were flying past high in the air that there was no let up in their ghostly howling.

I know a lovely, vivacious woman and she has a friendly, capable daughter who is a bit older than me. They were on the Wahine when it hit the rocks. The woman I know, the everyday woman, stood on the heaving, rolling, sloped deck of a sinking ship and threw her baby to a stranger in a lifeboat.

10 lies about terrorism in NZ

I have been stuck on this entry for a long time. I'm still not completely happy with it but I'm posting it so I can move on.

1. I have done a lot of research to make sure that this list reflects a well informed opinion.
   
2. I am confident the arrest of 17 people on terrorism charges will discourage activists from carrying out violent acts.
3. I am disappointed that the Solicitor General ruled against charging them under the terrorism act.
4. The recorded conversations which mention assassination and acts of violence should be taken at face value. Activists don't say that kind of thing unless they mean to act on it. I never joke with my friends about anything I wouldn't actually do.
5. The competence of the police in this case is unquestionable and I find it reassuring. The way the situation was handled has been positive for race relations.
   
6. I believe that Maori activists pose a real threat to the safety of all New Zealanders.
7. I can see how a sensible person would decide it was worthwhile to assassinate a New Zealand politician.
   
8. I think that extremist groups are made up entirely of sensible people. I always support Tama Iti and understand his point of view.
   
9. I think that the police are all sensible people. They certainly had a good reason to remove two avocados and return them later.
   
10. I have no lingering sense of disquiet about what happened.
    

The world is not as it should be.

France beat the All Blacks 20-18 in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals.

A moments silence please.

Always take this weather with you

After a very slow start we are finally having a fabulous summer. Three moments to celebrate:

Spontaneously ending up at Khandallah Pool without togs and discovering not only is it free but they lent H & K togs and towels free too. Two very happy little girls playing in the water, surrounded by the bush.

Coming home on a hot day and watching K run around on the footpath naked except for a pull-up on her head, a local family walking past and the mum quietly saying to me "Good show."

Standing by our garage one night and gazing at the milky way, sugar spilt across the sky, listening to plaintive call of a morepork across the valley - "Ru ru ... Ru ru ... ."

What spangles our banner

This post expands and explains my Waitangi Day post.

The Treaty of Waitangi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, is the founding document of our nation. It was signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 by a representative of the British Crown and a gathering of Maori Chiefs. Over the next several months 500 further signatures were added by representatives of most tribal groups. It granted the Queen governorship over New Zealand, granted Maori continued chieftainship and ownership of their lands and treasures (taonga), specified Maori would only sell land to the Crown, and grants Maori the same rights as other British subjects. For its time, I think, it was quite a reasonable agreement.

The treaty, unsurprisingly, was not the end of the story. Some tribes, also quite reasonably, refused to sign the treaty and some were never given the opportunity. The two versions of the treaty, one in English and one in Maori, differed, putting the exact meaning in doubt. The treaty was not ratified and did not have legal recognition until 1975. Many of the Maori signatories had no experience of what the British meant by land ownership or governorship and the British did not understand what retaining chieftainship meant to Maori. The treaty was not honoured. Land and taonga were taken without consent.

In 1975 the Waitangi Tribunal was set up to investigate and make recommendations to the government to resolve claims of breaches to the treaty. It has been key to the resolution of some significant breaches of the treaty.

Very sadly breaches of the treaty are still occurring. In 2004 the Foreshore and Seabed Act was passed making the Crown owners of that land without Maori ever having sold it or being compensated in any way. I was among many who took part in the hikoi to protest.

---

An explanation of the flags.

Union Jack - I began the series with this flag partly because I think it is the first flag that would have been flown in NZ (by James Cook in 1769), partly out of mischievousness and partly as the Treaty of Waitangi was between the British Crown and Maori, and to start and end with very strong, deliberately controversial images for Waitangi Day.

Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand - The first true New Zealand flag adopted by the United Tribes of New Zealand at a meeting of Maori chiefs in 1834.

New Zealand Flag - The deeply familiar symbol of our country in use since1869. Lots of Kiwis, including me, would like to change but can't agree what to.

New Zealand Red Ensign - Before doing the flag post I could have told you that it is a nautical flag and that it is associated in my mind with Waitangi Day, if pressed I'd have guessed that association was naval. Now I know better, the red ensign is flown during Maori events (including at Waitangi on Waitangi Day) because there is a traditional Maori preference for a red flag.

Green Spiral Flag - The Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser had a passionate love for New Zealand and adopted it as his second home. He is remembered here for a fabulous toilet and this flag he designed in 1983 which is loved by greenies and ignored by everyone else. I have deliberately chosen a picture of this flag which is slightly rumpled and real, trying to embody a sense of flag as a cherished object not just a symbol.

Stylised Silver Fern Flag - This has become one of the front runners in the bid to change the New Zealand flag. It is inspired by the white fern on black symbol of the All Blacks - if Kiwis can't agree on anything else at least they can agree on the rugby. However black is a controversial colour for a flag, the design has a corporate logo feel and it acknowledges without including Maori symbols. This flag was designed by Cameron Sanders in about 2004.

Flag of Tino Rangatiratanga - This is the unofficial Maori flag and the flag of the Maori Sovereignty Movement (Tino Rangatiratanga). One of the key differences between the treaty in English and Maori was the words used for what was ceded to the Crown and what was kept. In Maori what was ceded was kawanatanga (governorship) and what was kept was tino rangatiratanga (absolute chieftainship, usually referred to as sovereignty). What exactly Maori sovereignty would entail is unclear and this uncertainty leads to fear and resistance from most pakeha New Zealanders. I've chosen a moving image of this flag to show the active nature of a movement seeking change, to evoke the protestors flags in the wind at Waitangi, and to make it seem not just a observation but a statement.

For more information check out Wikipedia from which you can find out more about nearly all of this. There are also a number of other sites covering the treaty online including this NZ government one and this Tino Rangatiratanga one.

True colours?

Today/yesterday was Waitangi Day. After too much chocolate I am unable to sleep so I give you this musing (for background try Wikipedia on New Zealand Flag [and this later post]):

H rules the world

H is lawful goodish. She likes there to be rules and she likes to follow them. She is desperately upset if she accidentally does something bad. Sometimes she is naughty on purpose and she is OK with that but the horror of breaking a rule she didn't know about really gets to her.

At the zoo, if K puts her finger in a cage H is outraged - "You're not allowed to do that!" If H puts her finger in a cage K is distraught, desperately worried that H will be bitten.

About 8:30 this morning I said to H & K - "Would you like to go to the beach today?" They were very enthusiastic. When we managed to leave the house at 11 I counted the harbour city's blessings.

At the playground by the beach I was reminded of H's penchant for rules. She kept saying things like: "you're supposed to climb on here like this", "he shouldn't go on the outside like that" and "am I allowed to stand on that?"

I tried to say "H, there are no rules for how to play here" but I wasn't convincing, I was too busy thinking of all the rules.

A glimpse of summer

Cooling my feet in the new Grey St fountain.

Living in oblivion

I found out today from a news website (www.stuff.co.nz) that Al Gore was in Auckland today. The article included this snippet:

Mr Gore chuckled when a journalist, trailing behind him, asked which Rugby World Cup stadium he would prefer.
He said he had no comment on the matter.

Sometimes I am embarassed to be a kiwi.

Guilty pleasures

I haven't been posting because I have been away from an internet connection. D whisked me away to recover away from our children. That's right, we have left H, recovering from chicken pox, and K, about to come down with them, in the tender care of the wonderful W. The last couple of days we mooched around Martinborough and ate Schoc chocolates - the lapsang souchong is my favourite.

[Link to Schoc website to be added if they have one when I'm not on dial-up.

Later - Here is the link but you have to go through so much fluff to get to the chocolates that I'm not adding it without this warning.]

Convalescent musings

I'm feeling much better today. I went for a wee walk around the block and found two different chatty locals to talk to on the way, just what I needed. Other than that I have been reading Naomi Novik's books His Majesty's Dragon and Throne of Jade, which are a cross between Patrick O'Brian and Anne McCaffrey, and making preparations for D's birthday present.

Normally I like presents to be surprises but this time I have consulted D about it. The preparations have involved ordering the present duty free to meet my sister as she comes through Auckland airport and ripping our entire CD collection, 1193 songs, 3.4 days of music, 4.53 GB so far.

Googling "iTunes New Zealand" comes up with "iTunes To Launch In New Zealand Early Next Year - 12 Oct" which sounds optimistic until you click the article and find out it was written in October 2004. Just occasionally NZ feels like a very small country at the far end of the earth.

Fortunately the earth is round.

Not the Edinburgh Tattoo

My friend I suggested I write about "What you'd tell your daughter if one of them wanted to get a tattoo?"

I'm not anti tattoos per se but I've never got one because I've never been confident that I'd still want the same thing years later. So I think I'd want to set an age limit, like 18. If I thought I could get away with it I'd like a rule that you have to write down what you want 5 years before you get the tattoo and can only get it done if you still want the same thing.

Maybe I should be evil and ask H & K when they are 13 what they'd get if they could have a tattoo, write it down and bring it out when they're 18 to scare them :-)

My grandmother had her ears pierced when she was 80. Maybe I'll get a tattoo when I'm 80. I wouldn't have to live with it for so long :-)

---

When I went on my OE (short for overseas experience - Kiwi for travelling and or working overseas typically as a young adult). I realised that facial tattoos are more common in New Zealand than anywhere else I went (US, Canada, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Samoa).

I used to go out with a largish guy with dark curly hair who wore black jeans and a black fisherman's knit jersey. Once I saw him in the middle of town, I ran up behind him, grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him round. It wasn't him. It was someone with full facial, gang related tattoos. I said "sorry - thought you were someone else" in a cheery voice and ran off again. The guy looked stunned.

I think being accosted in an overly friendly manner by small brightly coloured people was outside his normal experience.

---

The Tattoo Museum in Wellington is closing soon. I've been meaning to go to it ever since it opened. If you're in Wellington and you're in the same boat you should go now.

Trees and birds (be)for(e) work

Today I saw a kingfisher, like this one, on my walk to work (I usually see tui).

I’ve been thinking about taking a camera with me and taking photos along my walk, partly to show you how lovely it is and partly to inspire me to walk when I get lazy. It helps that I walk through the Botanical Gardens.

Last week was perfect spring, today, bear (or bare) with me as I break into haiku:

white blossom
blustery day
petal snow

I work in a tower block on The Terrace, Wellington’s equivalent of Wall Street. I used to live in a flat at the other end of The Terrace. One day I decided to pick flowers on the way home from work. The glass canyon was transformed; suddenly the little gardens architects throw in and pretty weeds were my focus. I got home with a cheerful posy.

Pohutukawa springing

Spring

Today I walked to work and it was absolutely, positively Spring. I'm not sure if it snuck up on me while I was obsessing about my operation or if the lovely sunny weekend we've just had tipped the balance.

For a few weeks the early signs have been out - first fleshy pink magnolias, then all the leaves gone from the kowhai trees replaced with yellow flowers and the Botanical Gardens becoming ever more tulipy. But suddenly today lots of unimpressive trees I don't usually notice were covered in blossom, the blackbirds were flirting and one very early pohutukawa was out.

Pohutukawa

When Europeans first settled in Wellington there were no pohutukawa trees here, they were only found further north in New Zealand. Then between 1930 and the 1970s the Wellington City Council planted 30,000 [quoted from memory from Bob Brockie's excellent book City Nature]. Wellingtonians also planted them in their gardens and many self seeded. They are now very common here.

The interesting question is why had a tree that grows so readily in Wellington not spread here naturally? Some scientists believe pohutukawa did used to grow in Wellington. It was only during the last iceage [or mini-iceage I forget which] that it got too cold for them. If we had waited long enough they would have spread back south of their own accord. The problem with proving this theory is that pohutukawa pollen looks so similar to northern rata pollen that the identification of pohutukawa pollen by some experts is questioned by other experts.

I like the idea that the spread of pohutukawa south was inevitable and only assisted by generations of Wellingtonians.

New Zealand idyll

Yesterday was Father's Day in this part of the world so I asked D what he wanted to do (while cooking him breakfast) and he said "Hokio" somewhat wistfully. So we went.


H&K went barefoot to the beach, climbed sand dunes and played in the river. D enjoyed a quiet break with his book.

It was lovely.

[K is standing, H sitting.]

A tui a day

When I was growing up in Wellington in the 70s and 80s I saw about one tui a summer. Usually perched on the flax flowers near our letter box early in the morning.

Now if I walk to work I see at least five tui. When I walk around the block to creche I normally see one.

This is almost entirely because the Wellington Regional Council has been reducing the number of possums in Wellington.

Every time I see a tui they have my heartfelt thanks.

10 lies about Wellington's weather

1. There is dust everywhere, in everything. It blows in all the cracks until even inside all the surfaces have a fine layer. My house looks like a film set from a ghost town. My eyes are gritty, my nose is lined with dust and I can still feel it in my throat since I unwisely opened my mouth outside to call to a friend, just visible through the haze across the street.
   

2. The mounds of grey unmelted snow look like an elephants graveyard, slumped beasts who have lost their bulk and now the skin hangs in arcs from bone to bone. Snow looks so pristine when it arrives and becomes the trap for the all the city's filth.
   

3. The air is so dry my lips are chapped and my hands itch. I have to be carefully what I wear so as not to get too much static build up and the resulting shocks. But at least the plastic wrap really sticks!
   

4. The weather has been the same for weeks. You don't need a weather report here, just a calendar.
   

5. My eyes itch with smog. Even if you look straight up the sky is not clear blue, where it meets the hills it is brown. The sun sets spectacularly but never touches the horizon.
   

6. The path outside our house has become a crevasse through the snow that I have to clear every morning. The outside world seems like a myth from inside the quiet and warm womb of the drift which has consumed our house.
   

7. I'm used to the constant sweating, the prickle on my forehead, the slow trickle down my cleavage. But at night I toss and turn, no sheet - cooler but nothing between my sweaty limbs - or sheet - hotter but some relief from the hot, sticky feel of limb against limb.
   

8. It has been still for weeks, the flags hang lifeless on the poles, the smell of the city hangs around it like a blanket - car exhaust and cooking fat, seaweed and sewage.
   

9. It is tornado season, when the thunder clouds build, towering over the hills and the sky starts, almost imperceptibly at first, to turn that eerie green, I watch with dread and anticipation, trying to balance the urge to hide and the need to watch these most spectacular forces at work. The lighting forks down from the sky and each bolt is a curse.
   

10. I love the monsoon. The water comes to quench an unimaginable thirst, the anticipation of the arid land building month by month, week by week, day by day until - suddenly there is nothing dry, nothing wanting. Water is everywhere, an overabundance, a deluge, a flood. The streets are rivers and buildings are islands. The thick warm rain is so unlike any other time of year and yet so right.