RADICALCROSSSTITCH

It’s billboard time!

To celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori, the Greens have launched their first billboard. I think it’s gorgeous! Metiria said

“This billboard is a tongue-in-cheek representation of a whakatauki – sometimes translated as ‘many hands make light work’,” Mrs Turei says.“It describes the Greens commitment to work together with tangata whenua on te Tiriti issues and to help to forge a new relationship between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti premised on te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

“This billboard carries our key voting message for Maori this election – that you can have the best of both worlds by giving your Maori electorate vote to your favoured local candidate and your Party Vote to the Greens.

Nice!

Bye Mad Dog

So Richard Prebble made his validictory speech to parliament today. And it was classic Prebble! He told some absolutely hilarious stories and got pretty emotional too.

Now this might scare some of my buddies but I must say well done Richard, I’ll miss ya.

Richard Prebble is someone who is probably as far away from me on the ideological continuum as possible but I have a lot of respect for the man. The thing I liked the most about Prebble MP is his commitment to the standing orders. He is a man of process. He is a man that staunchly believes that parliament must remain consistent. And while I don’t neccessarily agree with some of the conventions of parliament, I definitely agree that in debate, you need to have rules, and those rules should be followed.

My favourite memories of Prebble will always be the standing order discussions between him and Jonathan Hunt. You’d have one or two members jumping up and down with points of order and then Hunt would make a ruling, and then Prebble would get up and point out an inconsistency with the ruling. The whole house would stop while Hunt and Prebble worked out between them what was fair and consistent. They both had such mutual respect for each other and it was great to see them work together on those occaisions.

The other thing about Prebble is that he would always stick up for any other MP in the House if they weren’t getting the fair treatment they deserved. Especially the newer MPs, Prebble was always really good at helping them learn the ropes, no matter what party they were from.

So goodbye Prebs, you did a great innings and you played bloody fair sport. Best wishes for the future, the place won’t be the same without you.

Yay for me! And yay for Hamilton!

Today is my birthday and for the first time in ages I woke up to a brilliant blue sky.

I won’t bore you all with stories of personal enlightenment and spiritual discovery cause a) it’s none of your business and b) it will scare the right-wingers away. But I did think it rather significant this morning that I was in the garden and I got to sit and watch a monarch butterfly hatch and unfurl and dry its wings. Mmmm, the wonders of nature.

So I’m still away but will be back on board again soon. But two things to share.

Spent a bit of time in the ‘Tron or Rocky Horror Hamilton as it now appears to be known. Now Hamilton has always been the unofficial boyracer capital of NZ but they now have a Rotary accessory shop on the main street! It doesn’t sell Rotary engines, just accessories. That is SO COOL!!! The other cool thing I saw was the cop car driving down the main street with a coathanger as an aerial, yay.

Hamilton rules so much.

London

Firstly all my thoughts are with the people of London. This tragic event will change your city I do not doubt. Be strong, look out for each other and know our thoughts are with you. Any of my London based friends who read this, drop me an email to let me know you’re ok please.

But I have to say this: Learn from New York. The question is not who did it, but why did they did it. This is the most important lesson to learn if we are ever to win the ‘war on terror’ because if we don’t start to ask this question, the attacks will only continue, and continue, and there will be more and more retaliation.

Please learn this lesson everybody.

On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the war on terror.

On the G8

While we hear fuck all of what’s going on over there through our media, bar some stories skimming over the issues being dealt with inside the meeting rooms. There is some ABSOLUTELY AMAZING resistance going on over there. The police have naturally been out in full force, riot squad gears, abusing powers, specifically targetting clearly-marked medics and generally playing the role of state funded corporate security guards.

But the people continue to resist and question all the ‘inevitable’s’ that keep getting rammed down our throats. And the resistance is clever, imaginative, organised and informed. I particularly like the Clown Army and the video of the clowns scaring off the Police had me in stitches! Oh, I wish I was there…

But of all the images I’ve seen, I think this one captures the struggle. We are at a point in history where the state, corportaions, the media are on one side and the people are on another. And who’s standing up for the planet? Who’s standing up for the people with no voice? These protestors are. And they’re doing it with style and humour. They’re doing at while putting themselves at major personal risk. They’re doing it with hope for a better future for all who share this planet with us. And they’re doing it with the rest of us backing them up. This picture says all of that for me.

Photo by Kristian Buus, outside Gleneagles fortress where the people have no voice. More here

Here comes the Bishop…

Yes folks, lucky Wellington (well, Lower Hutt) is getting a visit from the Nation Under Seige tour on Friday night.

Hope they’ve got a big venue cause people are going to flock to this one. Mind you I think quite a few of them will be outside and staying there, loudly.

But seriously, have you seen what this guy is up to?

Apparently his tour will expose:

1. A government gone evil
2. A radical homosexual agenda
3. The Media: a modern day witchcraft, and
4. The retreat of religion in New Zealand

But don’t worry, according to his FAQs it’s not a promotional tour for the Destiny Church, pah! I DARE him to go through the whole meeting without mentioning the Destiny Church and/or Party.

And then there’s the whole homosexual agenda thing. I don’t think he’s talking about this one.

Goddess, can’t go on much more, but seriously the man is a dangerous fruitcake and I recommend you join the protests on Friday. I’ll be there.