Paying more to puff

I detest smoking.  The pervasive smell of cigarette smoke, the haze that lingers in your face and the associated choking that occurs when you inhale smoke are experiences that I attempt to keep to a minimum (excepting that I have a good friend who can, on some nights, resemble the Hogwarts express steam strain). 

Last night the government passed, under urgency, a bill that will increase the excise levy on cigarettes in a bid to combat the level of smoking related deaths and illnesses.  The increases will occur in three 10% increments that will result in cigarettes costing around $17 a pack by January 2012.  Loose tobacco or rollies were also hit with an increase of 24%.  Tariana Turia claims that the increase in excise tax, particularly for the rollies, was an attempt by the government to address the smoking issue amongst the young, impoverished and Pacific Island & Maori communities (who make up a significant proportion of rollie consumers).

My problems with passing this bill through urgency are not only that I think smokers are being pretty unfairly treated but also that I doubt that this is likely to reduce the number of smokers, particularly within the groups that the government is supposedly targeting.  I was under the assumption that it has now become pretty widely accepted that smoking is an addiction, like gambling or alcoholism (I can't say the same re. sex addiction, Tiger...).  It generally follows that in circumstances of addiction things like the cost became fairly irrelevant to a said adictee.  Even without being addicted to something, the effectiveness of increasing a cost on a 'harmful' consumer good is dubious anyway.  People who are addicted aren't likely to quit the habit entirely, some may reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke, however, by and large people will simply sacrifice other goods or services in order to sustain the addiction.  I understand that changing the price of smokes may act as a deterrent to some new and younger smokers, however for those who are already addicted things are unlikely to change. 

Having a Mum involved in social work, makes you aware of the wider social consequences of these decisions and in her experience the targets of such policy are rarely met.  In the past, policy that has economically targeted such societal groups has resulted in money that is intended for food, health care and educational needs being instead filtered to cover the increasing cost of alcohol, tobacco etc.  The victims then become the most vulnerable members of these groups- children, and arguably their parents (the targets) do not suffer the consequences of such strategies.

I am no expert in policy making, and it isn't that I think the government goes about making decisions on nationwide policy rashly.  I do think however, that social attitudes need to be addressed before any real in-roads into such issues can be made.  If the government is going to insist on targeting 'harmful' consumer products economically at the very least, do so consistently.  I'm yet to see fast food to increase to astronomical prices in a bid to combat obesity...

To quote a smoker friend:
"I smoke, yeah, but I pay taxes like everyone else for the health care needs that my smoking may or may not cause in the future.  I'm not obese, unemployed or illegally claiming the sickness benefit.  I don't go around bashing my wife up, leaving my kids outside strip clubs or damaging public property and annoying the police.  I think in the grand scheme of things, smokers aren't the worst people in the world"


Sorry if i was a bit serious this post... I'm sure my whimsical self will be back next time!

x

Helloooo Bag Lady

Picture from: http://hurleysashimi.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/grannies.gif (initially taken from BANKSY- check out what these funky grannies are knitting!)

I get that op-shopping is hip and cool and sustainable and all that jazz, I myself enjoy the odd hunt for the moth-balled treasure, what I do not enjoy however are the shameless op-shopping creations rendered acceptable for public viewing that cause me to wonder why Nana's wardrobe decided to up and vom all over you.

One cannot simply grab any mixture of garments, put them on, check the mirror and go "Do I look like the lead character in a bad Eastern European thriller?", proudly (and disturbingly) answer yourself "Yes" and then stroll out the door with all your misplaced bargain hunting confidence.  Just because it is old, second hand, vintage, used, retro or whatever (insert euphemism for 'plain old crap' here) does not mean it will look good. 

Like most things, the bargain hunting life is a double edged sword.  Some op-shopping can be wonderful- finding old dresses in pretty prints or cool blazers from the 80's, but not everything will suit everyone and the rule of not dressing head to toe in one look is something that proves handy in such situations.  For example you can wear your vintage blazer with new jeans or a 50's dress and petticoat to a party but one should not seek to integrate every item that you have EVER bought from an op-shop into one ensemble as a public testament to your op-shopping prowess.  Generally you don't look as effortlessly dishevelled as you might think, you just look homeless.  When your friends cast a puzzled grimace at your approach or offer comments like "That's an interesting top", read: you look like a grade A freak show.

Give the treasures of the past their deserved re-introduction into hip society- wear them tastefully and uniquely with care.  Do not master some kind of multi-faceted offensive against the public's eyesight.  Remember- Nana's are cool, don't send their quaint twin sets and tweed into hideous oblivion because of some over-zealous attempt to stand out from the crowd.

x

Oh for F- sake!

Australian police cancel Bieber's only public show

Horror of all horrors!?!

Should I care more?  Yes, maybe.  No!

Obviously crazed pre-teens and girls under the age of sixteen are a riot concern for the Sydney police leading to them shut down J-dawgs only public performance.  So enamoured are Bieber's fans it would appear they are willing to literally trample their way to the top to get their precious peepers on the dreamy 16 year old  (I have previously intimated he is like 13 but forgive me, the kid looks about 12).  With at least 10 of the Bieberette's fainting, the wee trip to Aussie must have proved quite the ego boost for the side swept fringed hottie. 

Word on the street is that he's arriving in NZ sometime this week.  I'm thinking I might head out to the airport and camp out indefinitely to get in on some of the atmosphere.  I'm off to print myself an 'I heart Justin' T-shirt, learn the entire dance from the video clip to 'Baby, Baby, Baby' and hook myself up with some Botox to wipe 10 years off  and get me looking like my fine fresh faced 12 year old self!  I hope Mum will let me buy some cool clothes from Supre for when I meet him *sigh*

Baby, Baby, Baby I will always be yoooouuuuurrrs!

x

Do the Boogie Woogie...

I like to think I am especially skilled in the art of dancing.  Not in a technical sense of course.  I'm more of a "in the moment" dancer, when that beat reaches straight for your heart strings and you just gotta move to the rhythm (or not, as the case may be- i.e. most Caucasian males).  Like any true groover I have my staple moves that can be altered to suit the music of the moment- two step, hand clap, head wiggle, the box step, Saturday night fever and obviously the crowd favourite- the twirl.  Since my obsession with zumba, I have added a few choice moves to my repertoire, however seeing as I have not quite mastered them just yet these are restricted to my own personal dance parties in my bedroom.  Also, there is definitely a sense of latin sensuality in some zumba moves and my puritanical dance routines (G rated) do struggle to incorporate the booty shakes and body rolls.

There have been some great moments of dance captured in television and movies too (by this I mean like aside from my own personal memories of my great moments of dance).  I particularly enjoy the moment in Dirty Dancing when Johnny is teaching Baby how to dirty dance and then he spins her around and unwittingly she continues to groove for that awkward 5 seconds until she realises he's not there!  So good! Watch for the totally "lost in the moment" head nodding at about 1.28

Johnny teaching Baby to dance - stupid youtube won't let me embed!

On the topic of dancing and youtube, check this new dance movement out below.  Known as Jerkin' it's like a tame version of krumping I guess, but it has more James Brown than Chris Brown going on.  Apparently it originated in California and is part of the rise of the geek-esque cool movement (think: Pharrel and Kanye as opposed to more gangster influences) and is a cultural phenomenon in the States.  It looks super cool, though I doubt I'd have either the agility or co-ordination to ever pull anything like this off!  The kids chat in this vid for a wee while so best to skip straight to around 1.18 to actually see what they're up to!

Also, as a last self indulgent video, the star of this is a personal hero of mine.  Another friend and I spent the greater part of last years study leave watching all of this girls posts.  Can you imagine being 12/13 and just rocking this stuff out on youtube?  I love how she creates her own strobes with some choicely timed flicking of her light switch.  O-some! (youtube again fails me on the embedding front!)

Best dancer EVER

I hate to think what I might have done had I had access to youtube as a child; Bette Midler's "Going to the chapel", me, Mums white sheets, routine moves, coffee table as a stage and an occasionally tuneful voice at high volume... I'll just let that soak in for you all!

Happy Anzac Day (i don't know if happy is quite the right word... but you know what i mean!)

x

Inspiration boards 1 and 2

Thought I'd post these as I took them down; since I like to look back on them, I thought you would too

Uno

Dos

Who decides what's good

Have been on my death bed with tonsillitis, an illness that has plagued me my entire life making an appearance at least once a year (from memory I can't account for the years pre-age 8 but we'll allow for this slight exaggeration...).  My doctor (who I have suspected of sub-standard care for some time now) has never proposed the tonsillectomy (made up term here- could be right, probably not though) to solve my tonsil issues and I am yet to have had a doctors appointment that lasts longer than 10 minutes!  Is this usual service?  I am not in the practice of consulting more than my doc, seeing as he has been my doctor since i was five, but i was curious as to whether this is just how the general practitioner's roll these days...

On another note, being ill has not only enabled copious amounts of custard consumption (I'm sorry I can't help but think of Tubby custard here...) but also has allowed me the time to ponder some deep issues, time that is only the luxury of the unemployed, student like or sickly variety (of which I happily fulfill all three categories).  In a tutorial on Monday (pre-death bed state, clearly) the question of who decides what's good was brought up after a classmate was unable to post her poetry analysis (like my Wendt one) to Wikipedia after the administrators determined her poet (Samuel Cruickshank) was not worthy of Wikipedia web space.  Obviously there has always been a hierarchy in a variety of spheres that determines that which is 'good' and that which is not.  However, despite a lot of academic discourse related to this idea which we could colloquially consider simply as 'taste', no answers as to why we allow those who decide what is good to do so, and more than this, it seems as though at some point we neglect to challenge such determinations of what is good and valued and that which is not.

From an academic perspective (English at least), the 'great' works have changed little in the sense that they are still largely written from a white, middle aged, male point of view (Dickens, Shakespeare, Thackeray, Wilde, Dostoevsky, Nabokov etc).  OK, so while we've got the token post modern female writer chucked in there, or your classic female Novelists like Austen and Bronte these stories still tell the tales of a Europe to which most of the world is not privy and reflect little on peoples actual experiences today- how many 4 hour tea parties where you "take a turn about the lawn" discussing your marriage prospects with the local Earl have you attended recently?  What or who is it that decides that Dickens must be read over Dr Seuss? or in a New Zealand context, why is it that we spend a large part of our education reading books written by bored English gentlewomen of the 18th Century rather than reading the fiction of Patricia Grace or Alan Duff or even knowing figures in New Zealand Literature aside from Katherine Mansfield? (answer? Canonical literature continues to exists as one of the last great champions and undoubtedly the most pervasive form of Colonialism in the modern world)

Of course the issue of who decides what is good is not strictly academic, there are my constant concerns about who decides what is good in many of the chain-stores as I stroll the streets of Auckland.  In fact I am often left pondering just how many people it takes to create the fashion disasters that exist in the world, even before the criminal consumer in question buys it.  Take Jeggings for example: Someone has to think that idea up, then someone approves the aforementioned idea, next thing you know they're picking some fabric to make jeggings from (that has probably already been through a myriad of decision making culprits already), some factory in any chosen developing country starts making them, companies sell and market them and before you know it Mums of New Zealand are enabling the purchase of these atrocities.

You want a jean and a legging in one?  Jeggings are your answer!  Without the bulkiness of denim to suck those thighs in, the stretch jersey really allows for ease of movement- to put it bluntly "lets it all hang out".  With classy and flattering designs such as stone-washed purple you're a real trendsetter about town; VPL on display and muffin top enhancing waistband's YAY... buy now!!!! 

Moving to the musical arena, I question who let Justin Beiber on the loose? (he's been #1 in the Billboard charts for 3 weeks now, surely the 12-18 year old's cannot have that much sway in the charts).  I'm no muso and it is so "in" at the moment to not even listen to music unless it's written/sung by some pseudo-intellectual teenagers who are inspired by Norwegian folk music based in some basement in New York, BUT surely even the most indie among us are concerned about this rise to fame?

I like how he's looking both innocent (because he's about 13, white with blonde bangs) yet simultaneously is also pretty gangster with his backwards cap and un-identifiable hand gestures- peace or scissors? you tell me...

All I know is that Usher and Ludacris have a LOT to answer for!

The irony is I'm trying to tell people what is good and what isn't, the question of what is good and bad taste is ultimately a personal preference and shouldn't necessarily be determined by the whim of the powers that be.  These things, whether bad or good based on my opinions or yours, are at least in some way part of the zeitgeist of today and stand as representations of it.  Scary, i know (do I really want the memory of leggings as pants a significant component of my recollections of my 20's?).  I do take solace in the fact that because the 70's and 80's are in the past, most of the offensiveness of these decades is weeded out, even as they return in their modern day re-incarnations of their original selves.  Clearly though, the world is still rich and full of that which does offend and will continue to offend these baby blues.  It will simply be my ability to tolerate (or rant about it) that will determine my survival into that scary horizon that is the future.... that, or I will enact my plan to take over the world, becoming the powers that be (I'll decide what's good, my taste is so fantastic, bad taste will simply cease to exist people)

x

Spinning round round

Have been super busy this past week with an English essay which I will be publishing an extract from below.  It is for a paper 'Te Torino: Maori and Pacific Literature' that I am completing this year.  In examining indigenous literature we have focused in particular on traditional ways of knowing, and the trope of the spiral (Te Torino) in knowledge within a Pasifika context.  We should all be familiar with this idea if you're lucky enough to have grown up in New Zealand- the koru, a fern frond unfolding, symbolic of new life and the constant cycle of life and death.  We were asked to analyse a poem from the anthology "Whetu Moana" (I definitely recommend it if poetry is your thing) and share it somewhere public.  I chose to analyse Te One-Roa-a-Tohe, a poem by Albert Wendt.

Please forgive me for my digression from my self-indulgent rantings... take some time and have a read, learn something new from my own spiraling writing!

x


Close Reading of Albert Wendt's Te One-Roa-a-Tohe

Albert Wendt is one of the most prominent figures in Pacific (Oceanic) Literature. As a writer of novels, short stories and poetry, Wendt has been a founding father in the emergence, growth and continuing development of Oceanic Literature as a genre, seeking to challenge Western stereotypes of the Pacific and explore the epistemologies and histories of the Pacific through the art of storytelling (Sharrad). Though born in Samoa and educated in New Zealand, Wendt considers himself a dual citizen of both New Zealand Aotearoa and Samoa in both a physical and spiritual sense (TVNZ). The poem Te One-Roa-a-Tohe (translates as: The Long Beach of Tohe and is more commonly known as Ninety Mile Beach) (David) is an example of Wendt’s writing that features New Zealand and Samoa. This poem is set in two places of spiritual significance; Cape Reinga, New Zealand and Falealupo, Samoa where the spirits of the dead depart for the afterlife in the respective cultural mythologies. While initially the poem appears to consider the concept of death alone, a more comprehensive analysis reveals a narrative that enforces and celebrates mythology and non European epistemologies as well as undermining the effects of Colonialism. Most evident in the work is the connectedness of an Oceanic epistemology beyond the living and the dead- between the people of the Pacific and the Sea; the intrinsic relationship with nature and connections to the present and the past, and between cultures themselves.


The sea has always been a place of great significance to Oceanic peoples as acknowledged in Whetu Moana (Albert Wendt). In the Pacific, it was the ocean that both separated and united the region; peoples separated by water but able to voyage in canoes to engage with each other. It is unsurprising that given its central role in Pacific life, the Ocean features heavily in the mythology of Pacific. In this poem, the Ocean plays a central role, with coastal regions as settings of the work. In New Zealand, Wendt locates himself at Reinga, at the Northern most point of Te One-Roa-a-Tohe where it is believed that the Maori spirits of the dead depart their earthly life and return to the mythical Hawaiki through an ocean voyage. The Samoan equivalent of Reinga is located at the Western most point of Savaii known as Falealupo (more specifically, Tufutafoe) (Loli) . Here, the spirits of the dead bathe as the sun sets before diving into the ocean searching for Pulotu- the home of the spirits. Death is not the end or stillness that is manifested in more traditional European perspectives; because of the cyclic approach to existence that is the spiral- Te Torino, within a Pacific centred narrative, motion is perpetual. 

Throughout the poem the references to the sea stand not only to embody the notions of journeying but also reflect the connection in traditional belief systems between people and nature. The image of the Ocean is complimented by references to the sky and the sun, flax, pohutukawa trees, lava paths and caves that are woven together creating rich imagery reinforcing connections between nature, mythology and mankind. The language used personifies the spirits as they move through nature showing the bond, throughout the cycle of life and death, of Maori to nature.  Moving to Samoa, the dead bathe in naturally formed rock-pools before walking the lava path (again naturally formed) to dive for Pulotu. The natural features of the land act as markers on the spiritual journey to the afterlife for the people, and the geographical location- Falealupo, is linked to a pre-Christian deity, Nafanua.


Emphasis on the natural world not only illustrates the intertwining of nature with Pacific people, but also enables the juxtaposition of nature with man-made constructs (both literal and ideological) representing the European imposition in indigenous places. Wendt’s tone challenges the Colonial past and is evident in the poem as a whole. The indigenous words for geographical locations and mythical elements of the narrative are used throughout the stanza's.  The Colonial influence in New Zealand and Samoa is undermined by Wendt’s determination to reflect the sacredness of the mythology and these places for the indigenous people in the indigenous tongue rather than in the language of Colonisation. 

The poem Te One-Roa-a-Tohe is thus not simply a narrative about the Dead, it is a poem that seeks to explore the sub-narratives within Death that connect it to life, nature, journeying, mythology, past present and future generations in an uniquely Polynesian way. In a post-Colonial context (for Samoa at least) Wendt celebrates the resilience of traditional epistemologies and rhetoric and though Aotearoa still exists as a colonised state the continuing renaissance of Maori culture signals this same resilience present here. As the Literary genealogy of Oceania continues to grow, Wendt attempts to propagate a tradition that looks back as it moves forward; acknowledging the traditional histories from which Pacific narratives stem and moving into a modern world where hybridity, technology and constant cultural flux will continue to influence Pasifika writing. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri, Robert Sullivan, ed. Whetu Moana; Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003. Print.
David, Kelvin. "Labour Mp Welcomes Beach Name Change." New Zealand Labour Party website, 2010. Print.
Loli, Mata. "Clarification of Tufutafoe and Falealupo." Ed. Carpenter, Judeena. Auckland, 2010. Print.
Sharrad, Paul. Albert Webdt and Pacific Literature; Circling the Void. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003. Print.
Nz Festival: The New Oceania. 2006. (NZ), Point of View Productions.
Wendt, Albert. "Tatauing the Post-Colonial Body." SPAN 62 December (2009): 83-101. Print
---. "Towards a New Oceania." MANA 1 1 (1976): 49-60. Print.