The world of myspace...

So, what exactly is the point of myspace? I'm stumped.

But I need more friends, so if anyone has a myspace, add me: www.myspace.com/pamziewamzie

Apparently I'm a SWINGER. But I only said that because its funny.

And add Sophia too.

Boobs, bikes and battles

As much as I absolutely (and almost christianly) despise porn, I am shocked that Dick Hubbard is literally raining down on this parade, with the support of 13 other city councillors.

If Erotica's permit is revoked, they're going have a march down Queen St anyway, as they have in the past. It makes sense to allow them to do it and ensure it takes place safely, with the help of a few police officers.

And what I don't get is how ignorant our city council is being. At least half (and we all know which half) of the population looks at pornography; as voters and ratepayers, their views should be taken into account when the mayor decides exactly what are the 'right' kind of marches for this city. How in touch is this council with the people? Should a bunch of people past their motorbike days (with the exception of the lovely Leila Boyle) have the right to decide what is 'moral' for this city when it comes to Erotica expos? And hello, how long has pornography been around, are they going to try and outlaw it altogether? (By the way I'm not a council hater, I think on the whole Auckland City is doing a great job)

And will the public complain... Or is a love of pornography everyone's guilty little secret?

Spain baby!!

Finally... after a few vacuous posts, I'm writing about Young Labour's amazing trip to Spain a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I lost many of my photos, but there's a few in the next post...
IUSY Festival 2006

Alicante Spain

The IUSY festival was a wonderful experience for me. To be surrounded by 4,000 other young people, all united in Alicante for the same cause, was very inspiring. There are no words to describe the sense of belonging and tenacity that I felt with my comrades whilst in Spain.

The first day was good for the New Zealand delegation. Despite being a group of only eleven people we received loud cheers at the opening ceremony, and threw out Labour wristbands, which proved to be a hit among other delegates. Occasionally we would get mistaken for Australians because of our similar accents and flags, but once that was cleared up we were extremely popular.

Socialising with such a wide range of different nationalities was a very new and interesting experience for several of us. I made good friends with some comrades from the German delegation and had a fascinating discussion with them about patriotism and Spanish and German history. We hung out with Palestinian, Israeli, Spanish, and UK delegations too, and despite some language barriers we all got along famously well. (Phrasebooks were made fun of) Talking with other delegates was as educational as the formal workshops at times.

On the subject of workshops, the ones I found most outstanding were focussed on Feminism and Global Governance.

I attended two workshops on Feminism, concerning women in work and in politics. In both workshops I was asked to share insight on what it is like to be a female New Zealander. I was extremely proud to admit that I come from the first country to grant women the right to vote, and I shed light on our relatively equal representation in parliament and leadership positions. I also admitted, however, that females on average here earn 82 cents for every dollar that males earn in the workforce. I talked about the fact that females take twice as much time to pay back their student loans after graduating, but how we are combating this with our interest free student loan policy.

At the women in politics workshop we discussed ways in which gender equality can be achieved in government and the private sector. Solutions that were identified included:

• Quotas for women
• Encouraging working laws with flexible maternity and paternity leave
• Acknowledging different personality traits in men and women; that men tend to be very loyal in their support of other men – this is perhaps something women need to work on in their relationships with one another. (A contentious issue, but a possibility nonetheless)

These workshops were meaningful to me; as women we empathised with each other, shared ideas and common beliefs – with a different but equally valid perspective expressed from different parts of the globe. A young socialist from Sweden told us an analogy – “If an alien was to land in front of me I would not introduce myself as a woman, but first and foremost, a human being. That is simply how we should all see each other.”

Another couple of good workshops were on the topic of European Union migration and development policy, where I learnt useful information that could relate to New Zealand’s 0.7 campaign. EU development policy certainly does have its positives: EU member States provide 55% of the world’s Development aid and they have recently promised to reach 0,56% of their GDP by 2010 and 0,7% by 2015. Half of their aid has been specifically allocated to Africa in the future.

However, the workshop pointed out several issues wrong with EU aid, such as misleading figures of EU member states in their official Aid budgets. In 2005, EU Member States have spent almost one third of total EU Development aid (13,5 billion €) on:

• Debt cancellation (despite the illegitimacy of most of it)
• Housing refugees within the EU (refugees trying to escape political persecution or misery)
• Educating foreign students within European countries.

Guillaume Fine, the French presenter, also talked about the inconsistencies of development policy: Actual assessment and self-criticism of policies are apparently not very frequent and, whenever they exist, rarely question the overall approach. Criticism often raises administrative, financial or technical issues but rarely points out the political causes of the failures.

Due to internal pressure from EU Member States to “spend the European Development Fund money fast”, “quick disbursement” programmes have emerged, such as budgetary aid given directly to the treasury of the recipient country. Such processes lead to allocating budgetary aid regardless of the political situation, the nature of political regimes or the level of transparency in national spending. The EU is apparently also not keen on financing, supporting and observing national electoral processes.

Guillaume also pointed out problems with migration policy: A large number of countries from which migrants are fleeing are governed by illegitimate or dictatorial regimes that loot the natural resources (raw materials, forestry, crude oil), at the expense of their population. Eg. Cameroon, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Togo, Chad and Mauritania (until August 2005). Yet these immoral regimes continue to be supported by some EU member States, which want to maintain a “stable context” in their former colonies for commercial, geo-strategic or military interests.

While EU officials or Member States advocate the implementation of sound socio-economic policies in the countries of origin in order to prevent massive migratory flows, needless to say that the harmful effects of the globalised economic system have to be tackled first, and that neo-colonialism must be stopped.

I also attended a great workshop held by Tony Milne on New Zealand’s civil union campaign. He talked about how the campaign was conducted here - particularly on how many heterosexual individuals got involved and what this did to make it a more ‘mainstream’ issue. He also highlighted the opposition (Destiny Church, etc) to our campaign and the negative public reaction to that. It was empowering to be part of a delegation that can share some wisdom on campaigning for equal rights for homosexual couples.

During the conference New Zealand (for the first time) was asked by other delegations to attend networking meetings with them. The one that stood out most for me was our meeting with the Philippines, or Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party.

It was extremely eye opening to meet such a dedicated group of individuals, who have encountered such a large amount of corruption and many more challenges than the Labour party has ever come across here. For example, most of the group we met slept in their party offices, due to a lack of party funds. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s party have unjustly won their elections by allegedly buying votes from families who don’t refuse the offer because they cannot afford to feed themselves. The government in the Philippines is dominated by wealthy families and is too influenced by big business donations. We were told of government spies at the university there, who keep an eye on ‘political’ individuals. We were told of assassinations of people in their party, simply for being socialists.

The Philippines is therefore a country that we all expressed an interest in helping through future projects, along with a larger focus on helping our Pacific neighbours.

Overall I found the IUSY conference an extremely worthwhile experience, and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in politics and helping people. One day I would love to return to another IUSY festival and meet again with the friends I have made. I look forward to applying what I have learnt to New Zealand and the wider international community, whatever way that might be.

Kate, Jordan, Conor, Harriet, Tony, Jonathon, Sophie, Alaistair, Jocinda, Caleb - love you all, you guys rock ;)

No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up

Today has been
BUT: this almost made my day...Yes I take pleasure out of the simple things in life...

Last week in my politics lecture, Murry McCully and Chris Trotter graced my class with their presense for a panel discussion on the "future of the right." So, anyway, I open up the paper today and read Chris Trotter's article where he mentions me! Not by name though. "Last week, a post-graduate political science student asked me if I thought National would ever again be the 'natural party in government'..."

AWESOME.

Although, he got it wrong, I'm not a post-grad student. Oh well. SIGH.

That discussion was so much better than the one we had on Friday with Mike Smith - secretary of the Labour Party. Mike Smith gave us a small speech about how Labour was truly a social democratic party etc and implied that National was fairly scum, because of it neo-liberal policies.
Then Oliver asked him what evidence was there that Labour had moved away from the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980s, and he went on this tangent about the nationalisation of ACC, then mumbled a bit, said something about Wayne Mapp's 90 day bill, but really didn't answer the question. Sigh.

Has Labour really moved away from neo-liberalism, or has it cleverly disguised it under the term "the Third Way"?

Anywho, I have exam preparation to think about, and a trip to Italy! on the 26th to look forward too. Yay. I'm going on a contiki tour :)

Also got a 'guest post' coming later tonight!

Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Ok, so I know that the budget was a little while ago, and Michael Cullen did not include any tax cuts. Boo Hoo. Have a Cry. Call the wah-bulence. Whatever.

I absolutely cannot stand rich people complaining about why they have it so hard in life because they have to pay more tax then others. I cannot stand it when they use the justification: "why should I be taxed more just because I work harder?"

Firstly, it makes huge generalisations that just because one earns more, one is naturally a hard worker. I will concede that higher-paying jobs often require a lot more skill then other low paying jobs, but this is not the arguement. I think the cleaners at univerity work hella hard cleaning up the place. Students are messy, I seriously think that students for the most part take them for granted. Many of these cleaners are at uni at 6am cleaning up our rubbish and because the cleaning companies that employ them are notoriously bad at giving them normal hours, they may not leave uni until 7-8pm that night. Not only that, they are doing the jobs that no one wants such as cleaning toilets, changing "feminine" rubbish bins, cleaning urinals - not exactly fun and easy tasks.

Furthermore, often people who recieve high saleries is because they tend to have a lot more responsibility, not always because they work harder than anyone else. Think about major CEOs, if they fuck up, the company fucks up - when you think about this, its a major burdern on one person, and hence why they can command a higher salery.

Finally, to pay for tax cuts we would effectivly take money from health and education- of course this wouldn't affect the well-off because they don't have to rely on these things as heavily as lower socio-economic groups. However, for people who are less well off, they will have to dig deeper into their pockets just to afford the basic nessessities in life.

Basically, I honestly do not have problem paying taxes. I see it as a way of pooling everybodies resources to look after those in society who have been born into disadvantaged situations. People at all times in their life will be dependent, and I see taxes as a way of ensureing that nobody becomes disadvantaged by social and economic inequalities. The system of cource is not perfect, and I don't think it will ever be, but I believe we are on the right track at least.

Anywho, thats just my rant.

One last thing: To all those libertarian minded people out there, normally I wouldn't mind you responding to this blog, but to be honest, I seen and heard all your arguements. I know exactly what you will say - taxation is theft, Robert Nozick's principles, Ayn Rand is a goddess and I want to have her babies even though she is dead, I will exhume her body, take some DNA, and clone her. It's rather predictable.

Can someone PLEASE come up with an opposing argument from an entirely DIFFERENT perspective? I know a marxist would be against the idea of taxation...

The girl's guide to dating budding politicos

In the spirit of procrastinating, I decided to write a guide for dating men from the youth wing of some of New Zealand's main political parties. I was orginally going to some how link idealogy to dating, but then it got hard. So i've decided to mainly rely on sterotypes.

If anyone has suggestions that would be great!


The Young Nats

In my opinion, the young Nats have one up on every single other youth wing of any political party in New Zealand. That reason can be summed up in one word: SUITS. It is widely known fact that young Nats wear suits regularly on a ratio of 5:1 to all other political parties combined. Suits are hot. Unfortunately, if you do continue dating one of them, eventually settling down with them, etc, you must be aware that he may end up looking like Don Brash, or Jim Bolger (although he is quite cuddly looking) If you MUST date a young National, go for one that reminds you of Bill English. Why? Because he is lovely. Almost as lovely as curtains. Young Nats also tend to fit certain stereotypes about New Zealand, in that many of them show shocking similarities to rugby players –speaking in a strange language that resembles grunting.



Young Labour

If you have found a straight man in Young Labour, congratulations, there aren’t many. If you have found one of these rare men, they will either be a rabid free-marketers, a muldoonist or someone who still dreams of a proletariat revolution. The Muldoonists* tend to buy you a lot of drinks and food in the spirit of collectivism, but the relationships tend to descend into a frozen state, with your neo-Muldoonist boyfriend crying aloud whenever he is forced to confront the harsh realities of a changing society. Free-marketers tend to believe in the spirit of individualism and more often then not will be terrible at sharing popcorn, cheese-lovers pizza, vegetarian curry, fries etc. They will insist that you must engage with the free-market yourself so you as an individual can buy you own popcorn, cheese-lovers pizza, vegetarian curry, fries etc.


ACT

One of the main differences between Act and National is that ACT tend to have a more socially liberal policy. Therefore young ACT are kinky men. If you get sick of the ‘traditionalist’ approach that you have with your young Nat/Labour boyfriend, the young men in act are the people to go to if you fancy a bit of S&M, role-play, threesomes etc. ACT men also love Ayn Rand, and will often ask you to wear a mask with her image on when you are getting down and dirty.


Greens

The men found in Greens tend to messy in that they are not often inclined to getting haircuts. Often, small creatures are born, live and die in their dreadlocked mop. They also run the risk of smelling. Why? Being environmentally friendly and loving all species under the sun, they cannot bring themselves to shower to get rid of the bacteria that actually live on their skin. Even once they get infested with fleas they cannot bring themselves to douse themselves in flea powder. The men in the young greens however have one thing going for them – the bad boy image. They are almost always radicals, believing in bringing down the ‘man’. This will undoubtedly add some excitement to your life as you will end up picketing big bag corporations, attending protests and getting arrested. Also, they are likely to have the largest amount of pot, and will tend to share it more in the spirit of collectivism.

*I know Muldoon WAS in the National party, but his economic policies were quite left. Furthermore this "muldoonist" referes to a muldoon lover within the Labour party.

Last week at Womensfest...

I had the pleasure of listening to Kate Sutton speak in the quad last week at Womensfest, a yearly AUSA event organised by our lovely Women's Rights Officer, Allanah Golder.

This speech really spoke to me, as someone who has been criticised for being outspoken and a feminist at high school. It also made me realise that we as women shouldn't be taking our current position in society for granted, as it was fought hard for in a struggle more recently than most realise - there is a risk that our position can just as easily be taken away from us. And the struggle isn't over, as Kate highlights.

I feel honoured to be friends with this awesome gal and fellow feminist :)




WOMENSFEST SPEECH -

Auckland University Students
11/04/2006

Kate Sutton

Hello, It’s great to be back after two years, it feels exactly the same. I was invited to speak because I am a successful woman. I must say that this is very flattering, as I do not yet feel successful.

When told this I started to think about what success is – Sure I do many things. I am a former president of this student union, a current University of Auckland councillor, I am the chairperson of the Tamaki community board and I am a project manager for a charitable trust in South Auckland as well as sitting on about 4/5 other boards and committees.

These are all things that I do, I don’t know if they make me successful but I am here anyway to talk about how I got here, how important it is to support one another and where women are at in the 21st century.

I wanted to speak about women overseas and their plight – the feminisation of poverty and how vital it is for us to understand what is happening overseas, the HIV/AIDS epidemic which affects mainly heterosexual females and their children. The trafficking of women from one country to the next because they have no home and their only option is to sell themselves.

Women are the victims war fought by men – women look after the children, keep the household and earn the money while the men are out fighting – it is not an equal or fair world for women overseas in our poorer countries who are raped, mutilated, tortured and without homes – they are victims not perpetrators.

To an audience like this it’s too hard, the issues are too complex and the subject matter to serious for us to listen to on a lovely sunny day in the university quad - it’s best to start here in New Zealand, at home.

The latest Human rights commission census on women tracks women’s participation in major decision making roles in New Zealand – you can ask most women if they are discriminated against and most pakeha women will say no. The problem is that the statistics tell a different story 24.2% of judges, 19.2% of newspaper editors, 17.2% of legal partnerships, 18.9% of mayors are women.

My party, the labour party talks about ‘half now’ and putting women out there yet only 32.2% of MPs are women and 23% of cabinet are women – its disgraceful – there is certainly the ability out there.

41% of state sector statutory bodies are women due mainly to the hard work of the Ministry of Women’s affairs yet only 8% of the NZX market directors are women – our private sector directorship take up is moving at quote the human rights commission ‘ glacial speed’
These statistics are not this way because women do not have the skills its because choices are limited for women in many of these roles and also because the systems that we work within are male dominated systems that are constructed by men.

The Executive director of the business round table Roger Kerr says that the reason why businesses do not take on female directors is because they are conservative – he also made comment that maybe this was not the role of women. My biggest concern about this statement, if we ignore the arrogance of Roger speaking about the ‘role of women’ is that business may see appointing female directors as risky – certainly many women have the skills to be directors and we know that diversity leads to good decision making, but I would have thought that business would be to conservative to take on migrants and refugees, non English speakers and people without formal education– not women – it seems like we have stepped back in time 30 years. To take on women, especially a well educated, pakeha woman is conservative!

I am passionate about good governance and directorship and I am trying to break the mold of these statistics and bring my sisters with me, but it’s a long slow battle.

At this university where many of you feel safe and free from discrimination, the so called ‘critic and conscience of society’ –is one of the worst places that systematically discriminates against women at every level. Why is it that 17% of professors and associate professors are women? But it that over 50% of general staff are women – its because there is still a hierarchy of jobs and there is a still a system where women have choices to move ahead - the boys network still exists in this university and ignores merit and denies women the choice to move forward in their career.

Why was I only the 5th female president out of over 100 presidents at the student union?
You could argue that women are not stupid enough to take up a role that earns only $20,000 per year but the truth is that it’s a boys club.

When I was running for president and throughout my presidency I was called fat, ugly and a slut – why is it that people will not attack my ideas but will readily attack my appearance and what I may or may not do in my private life.

This place is fucking appalling – men tell you what to do, men make you feel bad – men for the benefit of men shape the system. As students we are objectified – I have been one of the people who have made jokes about “easy first years” and I regret that – I did not do the sisterhood any favours. The reason why I made these jokes is because I bowed to covert peer pressure. I picked up on the language and I existed to be liked by men and envied by women but I was never going to be a fuckable first year so I went to student politics and that made me attractive to a whole other group of men – who run the place, who attack me, who judge me on whether they would fuck me or not.

University is a sad story for women and we don’t fight against it because we ignore it or see it as tough luck cause its normal.

Date rape, gang rape, sexual violence are all a norm here – it’s a joke because men make it so and they are the blokes, the boys club and they are putting us down and taking our jobs.

So the stats look bad, the story is still bad - what do we do? You have all taken the right step – being educated is the key – information is power and you are learning the tools to access this power here at university.

We must support our sisters and men must support us – women only got the vote through the help of men who went in and voted for the vote to be ours.

You can support other women into positions of responsibility by helping them out when the going gets tough, voting for them, mentoring them, finding role models in them. You can support women by finding them to give them opportunity – they are out there they just are not as obvious as men because they are off doing other things.

We must encourage a culture of diversity and this starts with accepting women as equal in our society by providing them with equitable opportunity. You have the key and the power to do this with your votes, your support, and your skills. When you become aware of who you are choosing and why then you can consciously offer women their rightful place in society.

The only reason that you are sitting here in the quad if you are women is because women before you fought for your right to be here and men supported them.

You all have an obligation to wake the fuck up and realise how every thing that you have now, all the rights to be free to earn money to marry when you want, to gain an education, to control your sexuality and bear children when you want – all of these rights have been fought for by women and they can be taken away.

A women’s place is in the struggle and we must continue to fight for others who are oppressed as they fought for us, we must take men with us and to do that we must understand what feminism is for this generation – we must act because to continue on without recognising the disadvantages of this system we will not get anywhere.

In solidarity
Kia Kaha

UPDATE

Just to illustrate the anti-feminist backlash, here are some views on this speech:

Ranting on the ROK
NZB3
The Whig
On the Right
Lindsay Mitchell
David Farrar

And Xavier sticks it to them at Kete Were by writing 'Is that all they could come up with'