Quite often we read in the news about some Pit Bull or vicious breed of dog attacking some child or adult and terribly disfiguring them. Often the attacks are completely unprovoked and some innocent person gets horrifically mauled.
If I had my way, I'd round up all these vicious breeds and have them put down. Quite often their owners will proudly proclaim that they are Vicious A crossed with Vicious B crossed with Vicious C. For maximum viciousness, it seems. All this cross breeding is just for angry breeding if you ask me.
The people who like to own these kinds of dogs will always defend them, but the truth is how many savage attacks by Fox terriers or Spaniels or Collies or Labradors do you hear of?
A lot of owners seem to be the kind of people who think that having a tough dog makes them tough by extension, but really they are just sad, pathetic people with low self-esteem.
Friday, 4 June 2010
Born to Rule or Born to Fool
As I have stated before, I'm a born leftist. Probably will be until the day I die unless I win vast amounts on the Lotto. I have noticed that the richer people become the more right-wing views they seem to develop.
I am disturbed by the right-wing party, the National Party, that is presently our government. We had nine years of the left (pretty watered down and centrist left really) and at the last election all these people were saying it was time for a change, but I knew that a change doesn't necessarily mean an improvement. It wasn't long before National's "born to rule" attitude surfaced.
They got rid of a democratically-elected set of councillors at Environment Canterbury and installed their own puppet "commissioners" who will green light all the water consents for their rich dairy farmer mates so Canterbury's braided rivers can be sucked dry and polluted with dairy effluent just so farmers can raise dairy cattle on land that has naturally low rainfall and it more agriculturally suited to raising sheep and growing wheat as it did for decades before the dairy "boom". The next "boom" you hear will be Canterbury's ecology going up in a cloud of profit.
They want to mine in the most precious conservation areas we have and despoil the very beauty that tourists come to our country to see. Pristine wilderness ain't so pristine with toxic mine tailings floating down every stream.
Despite the very disastrous Gulf oil spill off the southern coast of America, our government gives Petrobras, a Brazilian oil company with a dubious environmental record, the all-clear to explore and drill in very deep water off our northeastern coast.
They just gave tax cuts to people, but guess who benefits most: the rich. At a time when our schools and hospitals are crying out for more funding, they'd rather piss in the pockets of their rich friends.
Well, I hope all those so desperate for change who voted them in are pleased with their choice when our beautiful country has been raped and pillaged by overseas corporations aided and abetted by the National Party's "develop and damn the consequences" ideology.
I am disturbed by the right-wing party, the National Party, that is presently our government. We had nine years of the left (pretty watered down and centrist left really) and at the last election all these people were saying it was time for a change, but I knew that a change doesn't necessarily mean an improvement. It wasn't long before National's "born to rule" attitude surfaced.
They got rid of a democratically-elected set of councillors at Environment Canterbury and installed their own puppet "commissioners" who will green light all the water consents for their rich dairy farmer mates so Canterbury's braided rivers can be sucked dry and polluted with dairy effluent just so farmers can raise dairy cattle on land that has naturally low rainfall and it more agriculturally suited to raising sheep and growing wheat as it did for decades before the dairy "boom". The next "boom" you hear will be Canterbury's ecology going up in a cloud of profit.
They want to mine in the most precious conservation areas we have and despoil the very beauty that tourists come to our country to see. Pristine wilderness ain't so pristine with toxic mine tailings floating down every stream.
Despite the very disastrous Gulf oil spill off the southern coast of America, our government gives Petrobras, a Brazilian oil company with a dubious environmental record, the all-clear to explore and drill in very deep water off our northeastern coast.
They just gave tax cuts to people, but guess who benefits most: the rich. At a time when our schools and hospitals are crying out for more funding, they'd rather piss in the pockets of their rich friends.
Well, I hope all those so desperate for change who voted them in are pleased with their choice when our beautiful country has been raped and pillaged by overseas corporations aided and abetted by the National Party's "develop and damn the consequences" ideology.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Turning Right is such a Fright
I'll post my credentials to the mast right now: I'm a member of the Green Party and an avowed long-life leftist. My father, who died in 1995, voted for the right-wing conservative party all his life, but at the end he was so disturbed by the party's lurch to the far-right in its social policies that he voted Green in his last few years. That was very telling I feel.
I never knew how my Mum voted, but her upbringing was more working-class. Her Dad was a carpenter who went to night school and improved his lot until he was foreman of a timber yard. She's in a rest home now and I'm not sure if she exercises her vote anymore.
Regardless of their political leanings, both my Mum and Dad brought us up to be considerate and to think of others. They taught us about a "fair go" for all and social justice and helping those less fortunate than ourselves. I want my two sons to be aware of these things too.
I am alarmed by the lurch to the Right in Aotearoa. It started in the 1980s with Reagan and Thatcher spreading their worldwide influence. It continued in the 1990s. I lived in Australia and elsewhere from about August 1986 until December 1994 so I missed some of the worst excesses of the social laceration of Aotearoa. But a "me first" greedy attitude sprang up in the 80s and 90s and it seems to have permeated through to the 21st century.
We had a bit of a breather with Labour (the left-wing party) governing from 1999 to 2008, but people wanted "change". Change does not necessarily equate to improvement.
I suppose it is to be expected, but most people vote out of self-interest and very few look at the bigger national picture of what benefits all of their countrymen.
I'm a firm believer in MMP (Mixed Member Proportional), but it is alarming how a far-right party with 1.4% of the vote can capture so much of the right-wing government's agenda. They are talking about the privatisation of water recently. God help us! Deregulating and privatising everything else hasn't worked so why should it work with water. Don't they ever learn? It's just blindness to ideology. They seem to have this unspoken mantra: "Private Good, Public Bad". But private industries can be just as lazy and inefficient as public services.
We were told that privatising the power industry would bring us cheaper power from increased competition. We now pay much more for our power because every one is taking their cut along the line instead of just having Municipal Power Boards who generated and supplied the power and maintained the power infrastructure.
Water is our most precious resource. We must use it wisely. But the far-right has an agenda to sell off our water to their rich, dairy-farming mates and they couldn't give a toss about the environment.
Take action now! Tomorrow may be too late!
I never knew how my Mum voted, but her upbringing was more working-class. Her Dad was a carpenter who went to night school and improved his lot until he was foreman of a timber yard. She's in a rest home now and I'm not sure if she exercises her vote anymore.
Regardless of their political leanings, both my Mum and Dad brought us up to be considerate and to think of others. They taught us about a "fair go" for all and social justice and helping those less fortunate than ourselves. I want my two sons to be aware of these things too.
I am alarmed by the lurch to the Right in Aotearoa. It started in the 1980s with Reagan and Thatcher spreading their worldwide influence. It continued in the 1990s. I lived in Australia and elsewhere from about August 1986 until December 1994 so I missed some of the worst excesses of the social laceration of Aotearoa. But a "me first" greedy attitude sprang up in the 80s and 90s and it seems to have permeated through to the 21st century.
We had a bit of a breather with Labour (the left-wing party) governing from 1999 to 2008, but people wanted "change". Change does not necessarily equate to improvement.
I suppose it is to be expected, but most people vote out of self-interest and very few look at the bigger national picture of what benefits all of their countrymen.
I'm a firm believer in MMP (Mixed Member Proportional), but it is alarming how a far-right party with 1.4% of the vote can capture so much of the right-wing government's agenda. They are talking about the privatisation of water recently. God help us! Deregulating and privatising everything else hasn't worked so why should it work with water. Don't they ever learn? It's just blindness to ideology. They seem to have this unspoken mantra: "Private Good, Public Bad". But private industries can be just as lazy and inefficient as public services.
We were told that privatising the power industry would bring us cheaper power from increased competition. We now pay much more for our power because every one is taking their cut along the line instead of just having Municipal Power Boards who generated and supplied the power and maintained the power infrastructure.
Water is our most precious resource. We must use it wisely. But the far-right has an agenda to sell off our water to their rich, dairy-farming mates and they couldn't give a toss about the environment.
Take action now! Tomorrow may be too late!
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
In the Mind's Eye-Pod
I know I am some Generation Old-Fart, but I do wonder about the proliferation of the IPod and its ubiquitousness. Are younger people going to deafen sooner? Will social interaction in real time wither on the vine? You cannot get on public transport without seeing many people cocooned in IPod land. If you ask someone something, they have to pull out their ear-plugs to respond.
I remember getting on a bus in a large city and then, at the next stop, a young woman and her boyfriend got on. She was listening to her IPod and he just looked around, looking slightly at a loss as to what to occupy his time with. They travelled several kilometres into the centre of the city and she never exchanged a word with her boyfriend. They got off before me and she continued to walk down the footpath with him, still plugged in and plugged out from him. That is got to be some kind of weird, doesn't it?
I prefer my version. I don't own an IPod. I have what I call a "Mind's Eye-Pod". I walk around singing songs out loud or quietly, depending on where I am. This has at least two distinct advantages: I can stop at any time and respond to social interaction plus I work hard at remembering song lyrics which I am sure has a good effect on my memory. I'm training my neurons, exercising my vocal cords and having fun, all in one fell swoop!
I remember getting on a bus in a large city and then, at the next stop, a young woman and her boyfriend got on. She was listening to her IPod and he just looked around, looking slightly at a loss as to what to occupy his time with. They travelled several kilometres into the centre of the city and she never exchanged a word with her boyfriend. They got off before me and she continued to walk down the footpath with him, still plugged in and plugged out from him. That is got to be some kind of weird, doesn't it?
I prefer my version. I don't own an IPod. I have what I call a "Mind's Eye-Pod". I walk around singing songs out loud or quietly, depending on where I am. This has at least two distinct advantages: I can stop at any time and respond to social interaction plus I work hard at remembering song lyrics which I am sure has a good effect on my memory. I'm training my neurons, exercising my vocal cords and having fun, all in one fell swoop!
Sunday, 25 April 2010
The End of the Beginning
I've just got home after performing in a special matinee performance of our WWI play for Anzac Day. I'm not sure how many old Diggers were in the audience, but, if there were any, I hope we did them proud. The actor playing the main character wore his Great-grandfather's WWI medals for the curtain call. They included a Military Cross.
That is performance number two. We opened on Saturday night and then we did this special Anzac Day matinee today, Sunday. So we have six more performances left in the season.
On the way to the theatre, I was listening to the car radio and they were reporting on the various Anzac Day commemorations around the country. Quite unbidden, tears came to my eyes. Am I getting to be a sentimental old fool?
I couldn't help thinking about my Dad, who flew Hurricanes for the RAF in the Middle East during WWII. He died in 1995, aged 83. He always turned out for the Dawn Parade, right up until shortly before he died.
I have never had to know war or fighting in a war. I hope my two sons will never experience war either. It may be a hoary old cliche, but we do owe a huge debt of gratitude to those men like my Dad and the many comrades of his who didn't return. And the men who went before them in WWI.
There aren't many WWII veterans still alive. Let us cherish and respect those who are still amongst us. "At the going down of the sun and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM."
That is performance number two. We opened on Saturday night and then we did this special Anzac Day matinee today, Sunday. So we have six more performances left in the season.
On the way to the theatre, I was listening to the car radio and they were reporting on the various Anzac Day commemorations around the country. Quite unbidden, tears came to my eyes. Am I getting to be a sentimental old fool?
I couldn't help thinking about my Dad, who flew Hurricanes for the RAF in the Middle East during WWII. He died in 1995, aged 83. He always turned out for the Dawn Parade, right up until shortly before he died.
I have never had to know war or fighting in a war. I hope my two sons will never experience war either. It may be a hoary old cliche, but we do owe a huge debt of gratitude to those men like my Dad and the many comrades of his who didn't return. And the men who went before them in WWI.
There aren't many WWII veterans still alive. Let us cherish and respect those who are still amongst us. "At the going down of the sun and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM."
Friday, 23 April 2010
Dancing with Mammon
Fairly early on when I started this blogging lark, I discovered there was a setting for monetising your blog. This involves them (the great faceless them) placing ads relevant to content in your blog and if any blog followers ( I think I have a grand total of three) click on ads, the blogger gets some small return, something like US 1 cent per click.
I agonised a bit about this because I wasn't sure if I wanted to dance with Mammon. It seemed a tad cheesy (insert ad for Kraft cheese here). But I RATIONALISED as we all do. Well, I'm expending some time on this, mainly for the heck of it, the fun, but if a little monetary recompense could flow my way, well, why not?
I'm not sure if it is even set up properly. I may have 12 cents sitting in a Swiss bank account (insert ad for Goldman Sachs here - are they still standing?) trying to find me!
I have a good friend from Australia living in China at present and I said to him that if he could persuade his Chinese friends and associates to follow the blog of an erudite English and Theatre major such as myself, they might learn erudite English (valuable to them) and click on my ads (valuable to me). Millions of Chinese followers of my blog means millions of cents of clicks. When I'm a blog millionaire, come and tap me for some largesse and so that I can spread the love. I'm keen to support young artists of any persuasion, particularly theatre practitioners and writers but any art practice is worth supporting. Ah, dreams of blog-induced philanthropy!
It's tricky, selling out. Neil Sedaka may have reasoned that "breaking up is hard to do", but selling your soul ain't no piece of cake neither!
I agonised a bit about this because I wasn't sure if I wanted to dance with Mammon. It seemed a tad cheesy (insert ad for Kraft cheese here). But I RATIONALISED as we all do. Well, I'm expending some time on this, mainly for the heck of it, the fun, but if a little monetary recompense could flow my way, well, why not?
I'm not sure if it is even set up properly. I may have 12 cents sitting in a Swiss bank account (insert ad for Goldman Sachs here - are they still standing?) trying to find me!
I have a good friend from Australia living in China at present and I said to him that if he could persuade his Chinese friends and associates to follow the blog of an erudite English and Theatre major such as myself, they might learn erudite English (valuable to them) and click on my ads (valuable to me). Millions of Chinese followers of my blog means millions of cents of clicks. When I'm a blog millionaire, come and tap me for some largesse and so that I can spread the love. I'm keen to support young artists of any persuasion, particularly theatre practitioners and writers but any art practice is worth supporting. Ah, dreams of blog-induced philanthropy!
It's tricky, selling out. Neil Sedaka may have reasoned that "breaking up is hard to do", but selling your soul ain't no piece of cake neither!
Monday, 19 April 2010
All the World's a Stage
It has been over a month since I last posted on this blog. Mainly this has been because I've been rehearsing a play about World War One which goes up next Saturday.
It has been a bit like enduring a war at times. Many of the actors, me included, have had trouble learning their lines because large chunks are rather prosaic and repetitive. Much like war, I believe, long periods of nothing but the mundane broken by sporadic fear and excitement. It's a good play, but I don't think I've ever been in a play where I had so much trouble getting the lines to stick in my memory.
And it's not because I'm getting old and doddery either because most of my fellow cast are in their teens and twenties and they have struggled to learn their lines too.
So some of the fear on stage during rehearsals has been "acted fear" but much of it has been "?!@#$& do I speak now? Is it my line? What is that line?"
It has been a bit like enduring a war at times. Many of the actors, me included, have had trouble learning their lines because large chunks are rather prosaic and repetitive. Much like war, I believe, long periods of nothing but the mundane broken by sporadic fear and excitement. It's a good play, but I don't think I've ever been in a play where I had so much trouble getting the lines to stick in my memory.
And it's not because I'm getting old and doddery either because most of my fellow cast are in their teens and twenties and they have struggled to learn their lines too.
So some of the fear on stage during rehearsals has been "acted fear" but much of it has been "?!@#$& do I speak now? Is it my line? What is that line?"
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