Just had an assessment for one of my politics classes and it was in debate form.  Our moot was "that the Tino-rangatiratanga flag represents all New Zealanders" and I was affirming that.  DIFFICULT MUCH?! I wanted to make the point, during my presentation, that it is always much easier to find racist rhetoric unseating any positive affirmations of Maori-ness than it is otherwise but ran out of time and my team members weren't keen on it '-_-'.  

Anyway, I wrote my transcript up an hour before the debate because the evening before (when I started writing it up) I fell asleep...AFTER helping my two team members with their presentations i.e. I had this great slideshow idea which due it its relevance to our first speaker's speaking points was delegated to her...SHE BETTER HAVE GIVEN ME CREDIT IN THE TRANSCRIPT OF HER SPEECH SHE HANDED IN.

I digress...my speech was about the definition of Tino-rangatiratanga as being something akin to, if not completely, self-determination and how as a universal notion this couldn't be argued to apply just to Maori...ergo arguments that the Maori-ness of the name mean it's applicable only to Maori and does not represent all New Zealanders...

That only took up a few minutes so the rest of my 6minute allocation I spent lambasting the negating team (I was 3rd speaker so while all their speakers before me were presenting I was furiously scribbling notes on points I could bring them up on).  

I'm getting to the point of this post now.

Afterwards, we were all congratulated but a day later I received comments like "oh we all wish we had your brain"...this next comment prompted me to write this: "[insert name] didn't know you were so intelligent"        '-_______-'  GEE THANKS So I've been here for two years giving off the impression that I'm ignorant and inarticulate?  

I would have settled for a "great presentation, I can appreciate the points you made' because when you say things like "...didn't know you were intelligent" the implication there is that before the presentation I had written you off as UNINTELLIGENT.

rant over.

Sociology...

In my final year of English at High School I wrote a research paper.  I was prompted to research what I ended up writing on due to a close friend's comment made in Biology.  I can't remember the context but it must have had something to do with students ditching classes and even school.  Anyway, the comment she made went something like this: "...but it's like their culture...Maori drop out of school early because that's Maori culture."  To which I responded: "...an entire people aren't genetically or culturally structured to fail or to drop out of school [name of friend], when an entire people are failing, it's not because it's in their "make-up" it suggests there is structural/institutional racism at play. 

I researched and wrote the paper when I was 16 going on 17 and the only books I consulted were New Zealand authored.  That made a great deal of sense to me seeing as my research was specific to Aotearoa New Zealand society.  

Now that I'm at university and taking a couple sociology papers for fun I can see who a lot of the New Zealand authors were probably referencing.

An extract from the Introduction chapter sub title: You might want to stop here:

There are comforts in delusions, in thinking that the world is as it should be.  It is so much easier to believe that the unemployed are out of work because they are lazy, that the homeless live outside because they prefer fresh air, that prisons are full because there are no bad circumstances.  It is much more troubling to think that the system itself is at fault, that structural inequalities are embedded within it, that some people do so well only because others do so very badly.

Edited by: Steve Matthewman, Catherine Lane West-Newman and Bruce Curtis

to be continued.  I NEED TO SLEEP

Social Networking Websites

I discovered twitter a few weeks ago and just recently became entangled in plurk.  These sites...it's like stalking but with the stalkee's full and informed consent.  

I suppose there is an element of pretentiousness in me constantly updating my progress throughout the day and expecting complete strangers to want to follow my "tweets" or "plurks"...Idc.

twitter.com    :     seamichael

plurk.com       :    seamichael

Add meh =]  PRETENTIOUS AND UNASHAMED

Preferential Treatment...

Targeted entry nee: Maori and P.I. quota.  Most, if not all non-Maori/P.I. see the existence of schemes like this as racist but I understand racism to be the root cause...the reason we absolutely need these schemes.  Quotas are not what should be questioned, our need for them in a supposed post-colonial (because colonisation is all done now??!!) society is what should be given attention.  

When I hear "Oh, Maori have it sweet, quotas ensure their entry into university..." I think to myself...Maori feature prominently in nearly every negative statistic.  Maori fill the prisons, Maori fill the hospitals, and Maori are quicker to fill their coffins and plots at the local cemetery than their non-Maori counterparts.  In order to qualify for these quotas you must be socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged.  When I hear people say "Maori have it sweet",  despite the facts telling a very different story, I think...go play in traffic.

Blackcaps to tour Zimbabwe?

I don't know...

If the proceeds generated by a tour will benefit the average Joe in Zimbabwe and isn't just going straight to the national coffers where it'll be used to oppress then tour on.  

first semester draws nearer

I will miss guilt free sleep when I'm back at varsity.  

The end of the academic year, for me, means sleep without feeling bad for not doing an extra reading (or doing any reading at all).  

Student life

University starts back in a couple weeks.  Good-bye sleeping without feeling guilty for not reading more of that ridiculously large course reader or reviewing the notes I took that day.  

This year I plan on being a social recluse, none of this spending more afternoons in the student pub than not.  I'll be focused and single-minded.  

I doubt this will last long.  Already I have plans to skip two days of lectures two weeks into the first semester.  It's for a good reason.

Weather

I hate this weather.  Humid like nothing else.  I'm tired.  Having trouble focusing on the screen.  I'm about ready for bed.  

Keeping a food diary...wondering if that would be a tell-tale sign of having an eating disorder or if it's a valid way to keep track of what you're eating - that you're actually eating, and well.  Stay tuned.  

Indian Restaurant in Oneroa

Went there before heading to a wine festival after-party and experienced customer service you'd expect a child porn collector to receive.  

I only went there because it was BYO and I had a red I wanted to share with my mate.  

Ordered a vegetarian dish with some naan and my mate got sea creatures and a few glasses of vodka and coke so we spent around $60.  

The barman and waitress grunted whenever I thanked them and they took turns staring at me during our meal silently but being none too subtle about wanting us to leave.  

I'll probably go back because the garlic naan was out of this world and the chana masala was tasty but I wont smile when I say "thank-you".

Seafood...

I've been clued up re: eating seafood.  

A scientist said there needs to be a complete blanket moratorium (is "complete" and "blanket"  redundant because a moratorium implies completeness and that in turn implies blanket-ness?) on eating seafood because we're not allowing stocks to replenish.  

I thought giving up seafood would be hard but once you take meat out of your diet ruling out eating sea creatures as well is easy stuff.  

Bottom trawling: it's lazy and arrogant...they know they're destroying coral that has taken decades to form and that they're indiscriminately netting and they don't seem to care.   

Whaling: unnecessary...the Japanese are not starving and it's not poor fishermen who are out hunting whales.

I'm not eating seafood anymore, I'll be a proper vegetarian.

Drinks...

I was sat with a friend in a square in the middle of town and I was getting my food fix (vege pledge made finding a meal difficult)

So we're sat there and I'm "enjoying" a falafel and salad without the pita wrap in this square.  It's maybe half eleven at night and we're having a natter then these two gangster looking people walk past and one slows and walks towards us.  I'm scared. 

So this gangster walks right up to where we're sitting and stops and we look up and it's just a guy we know from uni...

That's it, story over - elements of a horror huh?

Dora the intrepid explorer...

a punishment and an insult to children all over the world.

Ha ha, someone with too much time on their hands has provided the world with the most in depth article on a children's show including character bios - sad.

Having too much time myself, I checked the article out =]

While I'm on the subject of languages and children I'm reminded of an article published in my local paper a few years ago about a small group of South Africans pushing for recognition of and state funding for Afrikaans language nests in east coast public schools...purely by virtue of the fact that there is a large South African population in that area (NB only a small faction were pushing for this, the majority understood that this initiative had to be funded by their own community). 

I can understand their desire for their children to speak their native tongue but they way they went about attempting to secure that was extremely arrogant.  

iPod therefore iAm

iPod shuffle

iPod nano

iPod classic

iPod video

iPod touch

iPhone

iHave

DoThey?

just a random thought...geared towards exposing the shallowness of amassing personal (material) wealth while people are struggling to survive.  

The quality of my posts...

Writing is an art form.

Art, as is beauty, is subjective. 

It follows, then, that the quality of a piece of writing is relative.  

I subjectively reckon that my relatively art-full writing is beautiful. 

Hey girl, hey boy...

Superstar DJ's

Cut

I hate getting cut.  

Ever notice that in news broadcasts the reporter will relay the events of a vehicle accident as if the vehicle is a thinking and acting being:  "...the driver turned a corner and the vehicle left the road" - as if the vehicle had other plans and took it into its head that it would just leave the road...vehicles don't just leave the road because they have something better to do.

NB:  I've recently enabled my trackpad for use as the trackpad button...bit confusing...have also increased the speed of my delete button...keep over-shooting what I meant to delete...distressing.

Had dinner at Kura...it was either the slow service or the full malt Japanese beer that made me sleepy...either way, I think it's the company you're in that makes the evening AND THE RESTAURANT.  

Dieting...

only works if you do the grocery shopping...otherwise, you're pretty much at the mercy of that person.  

Vegetarianism...

I've given up red meat and chicken.  

I do eat fish but I justify my decision to eat fish by maintaining that I only ever eat ugly fish and I don't eat whales...I might do some research into whether the fish I eat is coming from depleted stock.  But I'm fairly sure the tuna that comes in cans is from tuna farms.

I sort of knew (thanks to a friend for confirming this) that eating fish meant you were not a vegetarian...so I guess my vege pledge is more of a nod to vegetarianism than vegetarianism proper.  

I may get there yet. 

spare change and other stuff you'd find in your pocket but the mind's equivalent

Had this moment of clarity last night while I was opening my bedroom window because it was so hot.  

Barkeeps are just like Genie...after a certain amount of drinks they're just going to stop serving you and there's really no negotiating unless you're performing favours for someone.  

Getting into a bed with fresh linen has to be one of life's most unlauded joys.

Global warming is happening...island nations are sinking so there's no escaping it (for them and the rest).  The sooner all those silly scientists stop wasting time generating research to the contrary and those stupid politicians stop touting it and join those clued up people devoting their time and knowledge to coming up with strategies for dealing with this global issue the awesomer.  

I take my laundry to the washer people in a bag all messed and stuff.  I get it back neatly folded and smelling like a field of flowers in spring.  That is magic. 

On Peace...

Peace is good.  

We should have heaps more of it.  

On War and Intelligence

We're, most of us, capable of speech and able to reason, so why is war still seen as a viable foreign relations policy?

Are we really "intelligent beings" ?