Posts by Stephen Judd
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Don't forget harvestbird, prose stylist that she is.
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So I'm more inclined to want to respond to the people handing out the abuse, and say something helpful and constructive, like, "Piss off, you fcukwits. We don't need racist scum like you here."
Could be a personally dangerous strategy, of course.
I have done that, in the past, on a scale ranging from gently remonstrating with co-workers to angrily shouting at a car-full of youths who were abusing some poor guy at a bus-stop. The latter incident did not result in the hiding I should have been afraid of. After said car-load drove off, I turned around and discovered that the guys who were moving our furniture that day had walked round the house and were standing behind me. If they had felt like forming a novelty act they could have juggled pianos.
Re the alleged racism of Chch: I'm sorry to have slandered its citizens as a group. It seems a plausible notion that for whatever reason, there are more visible munters there than in New Zealand's other large cities, and that their muntery manifests in racist ways among others. Until there is a scientific study that confirms things one way or another, I'll buy that, in the same way that I'll rely on the notion that Hamilton is boring, Timaru is violent, and your home town , ***-vegas, is a shithole.
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Re Auckland vs Wellington bars: I've often thought the same thing (and yes, the Wine Cellar is one of Auckland's great redeeming features).
My theory is that it IS the people, or rather their distribution.
Specifically, Wellington's compact central space and its well-heeled young demographic make it possible for nichey bars to survive and even to cluster together. In Auckland they would never get the foot traffic.
During my Auckland exile my social life, or at least the alcohol-driver part of it, sustained a great blow because it wasn't so easy just to hang about in town after work, and rely on your mates doing the same. In Auckland you have to plan getting in and out of town whereas in Wellington I'm already there or not far away in terms of effort and money.
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"down in little ol' NewZealand some fund managers decide to buy some"
Have they though? I could be wrong but I haven't seen any reports of local institutions buying them.
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Yes, it was a great night. My head AND my feet are sore.
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dyan: I agree with your Dad. And apart from "raising the tone", and making life more pleasant for people who would otherwise be on the sharp end, I think that if you curb open displays of racism, you end up with a younger generation who never learn what prejudice lurks in their elders, and who therefore will imbibe less themselves.
Re your cousin's point about it being more acceptable to be out as a racist - someone in the Expat Exposed thread said that they thought New Zealanders were diffident or inhibited about expressing public disapproval. I think that's very true too.
Having knocked Christchurch and to some extent all New Zealand, my only consolation is that Australia is even worse.
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So if there's no concrete evidence of an undeclared nuclear weapons programme. how will the US know where to bomb?
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Re that link of I/O's: that's my future sister-in-law's story, pretty much in a nutshell. Except she's been living in Chch for years, and I think that everyday racism is actually taking a toll on her mental health. It's pretty sad because she's acculturated enough that she doesn't get on when she visits Japan either - New Zealand has trained her to be too aggressive for a Japanese woman and to forget her mandatory happy face.
Dunno if Christchurch is really any worse than any other city though.
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I used to be in a band where the motto was "skinny white boys sing the blues." No shame in that.
I'm very sad about this, and I hope you'll come back here physically and virtually. Thanks for all the entertainment and information.
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One word that's been making me grind my teeth is "refute", used in the sense of "repudiate" or "deny" rather than "disprove."
I'm not sure if that's my nomination though. When do nominations close?