Posts by Julie Fairey
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I had one of those "Yeah so?" conversations yesterday about the EFA. The person I was gently arguing with* kept putting up arguments against the EFA which had
a) been addressed in the amendments or
b) weren't different from the situation under the old law from what I understood or
c) weren't anything that I would have thought a democratic patriot (gag) would have a problem with.I kept saying things like "yes you will still be able to do that, just not anonymously" and his response was generally "but that's not good enough, what's wrong with this country, when we can't say what we want anymore?" As you might imagine there was rather a lot of talking past each other. It was one of the more frustrating conversations I have had recently (of which there have been far too many).
My remonstrator attended both Auckland marches, and reckons that it is mostly people of his generation who are upset about the EFA because they travelled to Europe when there was a stark contrast between East and West (in the Iron Curtain sense). I didn't point out that my observation is that it isn't just his generation who are perturbed, it's in fact a demographic who have largely dominated political speech in our country - older well-off white men whose views could generally be classed as "conservative." (Of course there are exceptions to this sweeping generalisation.)
*Beware of people who say "What do you think about X?" What they really mean is "I want to tell you all about what I think about X and you won't get a word in edgeways."
PS Is anyone else having troubles with EFA rather than EFB? The first just doesn't trip off the finger-tips quite the same as the second. -
Well, I've been sitting back and not commenting on all of this stuff (other than privately to Tze Ming, Deborah and a couple of others) cos I was still thinking. I'm still thinking, but I hope I have my thoughts in enough order to start to communicate them.
I used to write a political blog, under a pseudonym, until my life changed and I wasn't the superhero identity I'd created for my blogging anymore. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it wasn't. I used to comment here under that pseudonym from time to time, and after I stopped using that identity I created another one for my PAS comments, but it doesn't fit so now I'm out here using my own name for the first time. Please be gentle with me ;-)
I'd love to see more diversity on PAS, both posters and commenters. This is not because I'm hideously unhappy with those already here but more because I see the potential that PA has which is not currently being totally realised.
I know that it's not fair to push so many of my own hopes onto someone else's project, but still I seem to do it. I think it's largely a result of having been through several years of being one of a small minority of left wing voices in the NZ blogosphere, and an even smaller number of women (both left and right), and an even tinier number of feminists.
I see this A List Blog (for want of a better term) that is PA, which is already largely leftish, has a good readership and respect within the community beyond the small elite circles of political blogs, and I think, wow wouldn't it be a great place to showcase the views and arguments of those leftward voices currently flailing around on the margins of blogging with little encouragement and multo trolling from the more dominant right. (I should point out that it's not just about women's/feminist voices too, although that is my current personal beef, I'd also particularly like to see tangata whenua and those to the Left of Labour here more).
Russell is totally right when he points out that the white boys post more. With a few notable exceptions, they also comment more. But partly this reflects the content and culture here - it's a vicious cycle from my point of view.
My perception, based on nothing remotely scientific, is also that the frequent posters tend to link much more to other male bloggers. Recently I read about something on a (US) feminist blog and then saw Russell mention it in a Hard News post, and I was disappointed that rather than link to a feminist blogger writing about he linked to a news story from CNN (or somewhere like that). Of course why shouldn't he, that's probably how he found out about it, and I realise my reaction was not totally rational. But I guess that gives you a little insight into how I'm feeling, after reading PA, and now PAS, for years.
I don't mean to single out Russell at all; I'd like to put this challenge out there to all PA posters and commenters - how many of the blogs you read are written by women? Don't tell me they aren't out there because they are, I used to write one. They are a little harder to find than the XY variety, and this comment is already too long for me to expound my theory (reinforced by the demographic of those who ask questions at political forums) about why this is.
Ok, that's enough for now. I'm glad we are having this korero and I look forward to seeing where it goes.