World Cup Flu.

The World Cup (W/C, cz it's shit) is starting tomorrow, to most of our collective national horror. I'm not sure how many people give a damn, but the hegemony imposed by the media has forced us to believe that this is the only thing that is actually happening! Far from it, New Zealand and half the countries involved in the W/C are involved in a geo-strategic war that has displaced millions and killed a majority of civilians and a minority of freedom fighters- those are my words, not Hone's. I'll be talking about that in my next post.

We don't have to go that far though to see a reality we should have been more aware of, and more considerate of. New Zealand is brewing a 'brown underclass', mainly in suburbs of South Auckland as well as very rural Maori areas. In Dunedin, while industry flees off-shore, the southern suburbs are left increasingly poor as well. I find it very hypocritical that we invest millions into a game and a couple of stadia while we leave more and more people to fight of desperation, frustration and depression on the dole. As the parents have no money, 200,000 kiwi kids live under the poverty line. In other words around 6% of the country.

Instead of investing in better infrastructure, more opportunities, better social services- such as the South D library that has been on the books for a good decade- we waste it on infrastructure that fosters an unnecessary sense of nationalism. In Auckland we've built the Cloud, in Dunedin Forsyth Barr; thus wasting millions of dollars just to give us a fleeting grasp of happiness!

I guess though, as we slowly starve, belief in a [g]od, nation, culture or all is a mild anasthetic. Mild, but flamable. Why should we forget the duty of the state to its people? While we continue our transition from an example of a functioning welfare state to a business sweatshop, our underclasses will increase and grow more unstable by the day.

In the time being I will not support New Zealand, no matter how much I am forced to do so by the profit-driven media bodies around.

Double Rainbow for the Dunedin Stadium!

I hitch-hiked back into Port Chalmers today. Anywhere else in the world and it'd be dangerous, but here everyone does it. Buses are too expensive, due to the city council's messed up priorities. Anyhow, I had no money, which was why I was working until 6 am.
An elderly couple picked me up, the woman was a kiwi, from here I'd say but the husband was not. His accent was quite strange and I couldn't place it. Scandinavian maybe? Well it was obvious that they'd both travelled quite a bit and it seems they have settled [back] in Dunedin. I agreed with them that it's a town with absolutely everything, why would anyone want to live in a bigger, less friendly city, where it is easier to get lost or mugged? We started talking about the ODT, the local rag, and we went on to talk about its April Fool's day issues. Every year it brings out a bizarre piece of false news. For some reason there are always people who fall for it. This year it said that beer would be flowing out of the public water taps of the brewery, to celebrate its hundredth anniversary. At 6 am the next day there was a queue of students waiting. Sigh.
This year the cartoonist, Tremain, drew a strip on the new stadium used as a glasshouse full of pot. I hate Tremain, he makes one good cartoon out of every 29 but this one was spot on! The stadium received so much opposition and it is said that the majority of the town didn't want it. We have Carisbrook, the House of Pain, an international stadium with an impressive history. The proponents for the stadium including the city council said that it was too cold... We live in Dunedin... It is cold. People in Scotland don't make glass houses to keep their sports players warm. And I'm sure the average Scot doesn't complain either, but maybe Dunedin has lost its roots?  The truth is that the stadium was advertised as a multi sports complex, where cricket, soccer, rugby, etc. would be played. It turns out to be too small for cricket, demand for a soccer stadium of that size just doesn't exist in the city and the rugby team is relegating to a lower division and doesn't have the money to play in its own stadium now. Then they said that it could be used for concerts, however we are a town of 120,000. To fill it, one in four would have to go. That's not going to happen. Any sane band of international calibre would instead go up to Christchurch, which has a population of 300,000 and is the capital of the South Island.
Why then was the stadium made? I still think it will be cheaper to trash it now. It won't be ready for the world cup, so we're going to have to go back to the good old House of Pain, Home of Otago rugby for practically 130 years. Trashing it now would also mean that public transport could be funded, or a new library in South D... But using the new one for growing pot would be a great idea, everyone I've talked to (4 people) think it is an excellent idea. That's an absolute majority! Just imagine how happy people would be! And we'd get the money back if that's what they're interested in! From a utilitarian point of view, because more people would be happy with the idea than sad, it should be done. Why not?