Publicly accessible
URL: http://www.nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/collections.html
copyright 2016, by the Victoria University of Wellington Library
All unambiguous end-of-line hyphens have been removed and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line, except in the case of those words that break over a page.
Some keywords in the header are a local Electronic Text Collection scheme to aid in establishing analytical groupings.
In order to make new content available faster this work has been uploaded but does not have comprehensive name authority mark up for sub-works and corresponding authors. We will endeavour to add this mark up as soon as possible.
One of the main myths created by the present government is the idea of knuckling down together and tightening our belts to overcome the economic crisis we are facing The rationale behind this is that we are taught to assume that all cuts the Government sees fit to make are necessary restrictions on non-essential items. Thus the government makes cuts to education services while Gandar claims that "existing levels of provision and services in education are being maintained."
But this is not true, for the cuts do not simply mean teachers have to knuckle down and do a bit more work; rather it means the children get poorer education.
This has been highlighted by the restrictions on the employment of relieving teachers The Government has decreed that any teacher who "does not have full time responsibility for a class" must be called upon as a reliever, with no limit to the number of times this can happen. This means that teachers working on special programmes (e.g. remedial reading classes) will have them constantly interrupted, because they must mind a class whose teacher is absent.
These special programmes which are not luxuries but of crucial importance to the children concerned are being jeopardized by this shortsighted government policy.
Government has also decreed that the principal will act as a relieving teacher for five days each term. This is completely ignoring the fact that it is not a simple case of a principal doing "a bit more work" but rather that he cannot do two jobs at once. If the principal is acting as a reliever and a headmaster his ability to respond to a crisis in the school is obviously impared.
Clyde Quay School is a typical example of the effects of such shortsighted cuts. Due to the multiracial nature of the school population, special programmes were in operation to help children overcome the language barrier. However, under the new regulations the two senior teachers employed in these special programmes have become relief teachers and the teacher aide's hours cut to fifteen each week. Now the special programmes are being jeopardised by the consequent lack of staff.
Another example is the situation facing Mana College where classes, many of them preparing for exams, are left without the supervision of relief teachers. One morning there were about 70 pupils in the school Hall spending the first period by talking, playing cards and other pastimes simply because there were not enough teachers to supervise them.
On 16 of the 25 school days this term, classes have had to go without teachers and there have been up to 150 students in the hall at one time under the supervision of one teacher.
A second dramatic cut has been in the area of clerical assistants and teacher aides. Now this extra assistance has been halved. Again this affects those schools who can least afford it and has resulted in the sacking of many teacher aides.
Another myopic cut comes in the area of teacher refresher schemes.
In most board districts the majority of the courses have simple been cancelled to forthwith Drastic travel restrictions have been imposed on such key people as psychologists, specialist teachers and advisers, resulting in a under-utilization of their resources.
Apart from the effect that retrenchment will have on education in general these cuts will particularly affect children with special needs i.e. those in rural areas, those emotionally disturbed, or those needing additional assistance because of their socioeconomic and multi-racial character:
With an overall increase of student rolls of 7% this year and an expected 4% next year the future looks pretty grim for university students. This unexpected increase combined with a 30 - 40% rise in some university costs is heavily taxing already limited resources. Victoria's $8.9 million budget is being stretched to meet even last year's standards and has meant:-
Another example of the mindless tactics of the Government are the cuts in University Research Grants. For the next two years grants will be halved and there will be no money for post-doctoral fellowships This means that university research in key fields such as agriculture, forestry and engineering, vital to our economy, will be totally inadequate.
Victoria is fairly typical of the problems facing other universities throughout the country. Unfortunately the situation doesn't look as if its going to improve. Although the universities are bound by a 5 year block grant for finance the last grant was made in
We cannot afford to let this happen. We must act now to safeguard not only our education but that of our children's. Education is a right. To restrict that right by cuts in spending is to make it the domain of the wealthy.
March against education cuts on July 23
Wellington Polytechnic, Wellington Teachers College, Central Institute of Technology and Victoria University are talking cost-of-living bursaries.
Because of the importance of this issue and its effect on thousands of students in the Wellington area, it is necessary that we all know what is going on in the various tertiary institutions in Wellington and combine our efforts to form a solid, united front. Wellington Polytech students have never really been politically active in this area and the number of students who suffer under the bursary anomalies, at Wellington Polytech makes me question this inactivity.
Hopefully I can claify the present position at Wellington Polytech concerning students and the Tertiary bursary, and even more hopefully stimulate some action by W.P. students.
To call the Tertiary Bursary, standard, is fatuous. Of the 800 odd full-time students at W.P., only 340 (approx 42%) receive the unabated bursary. Why?
A large number of students, 120 (approx 15%) do not receive a bursary at all Why?
Only 12 students (i.e. 1.5%) receive hardship bursaries (I'm one of them) and these are not a all at the unabated rate. Why?
There are about 200 students, who, because of the nature of their courses incur large expenses due to the materials and equipment they are required to produce. These students do not receive any additional assistance. Why?
There are students studying full time at W.P. for 6 months, in courses that are not recognised by the Education Dept., as full time courses and therefore the students are not eligible for bursary assistance. Why?
Student nurses and child-care students are required to do practical work in hospitals and day care centres situated in places like Porirua and Upper Hutt and do not receive any re-imbursement or assistance. Why?
Some students have to travel to Polytech from as far away as Paremata each day because $13 a week is nowhere near enough to enable them to flat in town. Why?
Parents are forced to subsidise their children at W.P. even though that child is of voting age and legally an adult who shouldn't have to depend on assistance from their, already financially hard pressed, parents. Why?
One student lives with her divorced mother in Wellington and receives only $13 a week. Why?
Students lucky enough to receive a bursary (and I refuse to call it S.........D Tertiary Bursary) are having to deal with constantly rising prices with a bursary that has yet to be adjusted to the cost of living increases, as promised by the Government. Why?
There is one man who is supposed to know the answers to these questions but all Mr Gandar can say is "I am aware of the anomalies...."
Wellington Polytech is a tertiary education centre and the introduction of the Tertiary Bursary was part of the necessary relignment in tertiary education that was going on at that time. After the initial excitement at the substantial increase in Polytech bursaries we have now realised that we are still being discriminated against (no offence to varsity students) and it appears that a Polytech education is not as tertiary as varsity education, therefore an anomaly exists in transferability.
Having already completed a varsity or polytech course many Wellington Polytech students (120 approx) are not eligible for bursaries under the present system. Second-chance education. Bullshit Gandar! If these students were to enroll in a full-time varsity course the bursary would be forthcoming. The anomolies list is almost endless. I say almost because we, the student, can put an end to them. Death to all anomalies!
As regards payment of the bursary, provisions have been made to have the bursary paid fortnightly, directly into students' bank accounts by the Wellington Polytech administration. If this system is successful in the third term of this year, it will be implemented for all eternity. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the W P. administration for this long awaited move.
The Government and Education Department cannot be allowed to continue to call the tertiary bursary, standard, and must be forced to rapidly remove the present anomalies and make tertiary education financially acceptable to those who wish it. We do not want the Government or Education Dept to change the bursary system - just make it standard for all tertiary education institutions.
Polytechnic students are told that Polytech education is directly beneficial to "N.Z. industry" Polytechnic students are told that they are highly motivated and dedicated to their particular courses, that they have shown their studious intentions by this strong motivation. Yet, we are discrimianted against by the bursary 'regulations' (no official regulations exist) and are being regarded as "second-class" tertiary education students.
The time has come for all students concerned to cease to suffer under an inadequate bursary system and to receive what has been promised to them (a carrot maybe?)
To all those Polytech students reading this Think about it, think about the 120 students who are not receiving bursaries at Wellington Polytech, think about the Government and its price control. Think about the students who are thinking of coming to Wellington Polytech next year. Think about these things and begin to make yourselves heard, Wellington Polytech is coming out of its broom cupboard. We must demand parity for Polytech education and the bursary system. We must make Polytech recognised as a tertiary education centre that contributes a great deal of expertise to the "N Z industry".
You are entitled to more - demand it.
I am writing to explain why your Students' Association and the other members of NZUSA are concerned about the National Government's handling of student bursaries and its policy of cutting education spending. I will deal first with Student bursaries.
The history of the Standard Tertiary Bursary dates from the Labour Party's
Labour's promise sounded fine, but students experienced over two years of inaction and delaying tactics by the Labour Government. It was not until
Finally, in
On the positive side, however, the Labour Government agreed to open discussions on the development of a students' cost of living index. This proposal opened the way for automatic increases in student bursaries to compensate students fully for increases in the cost of foot, rent, books, clothes etc. At the Education Department's request, NZUSA sent a proposal for a Student Price Index to the Department in December last year.
While the National Party was in opposition, NZUSA discussed student bursaries with Mr L.W. Gandar, who is now Minister of Education, and from early
National was particularly critical of the Standard Tertiary Bursary, and soon after the budget had been announced, it appeared that a National Government would scrap the Labour scheme. However, later in the year the party changed its mind after students had made it quite clear that, despite the inadequacies of the Standard Tertiary Bursary, they regarded it as a significant advance.
Let's look at what the National Government has done to carry out its five-point policy on student bursaries.
Before last year's election, the University Grants Committee, in consultation with NZUSA and the universities, produced a draft of the regulations governing the Standard Tertiary Bursary. All the Education Department had to do was to combine these regulations with those for technical institute and teachers' college students.
Eight months later, the Department has still failed to produce the new bursaries regulations. So it is perhaps not surprising that the Government has not yet begun its review of the Standard Tertiary Bursary!
NZUSA has also emphasised to Mr Gandar the urgency of a cost of living index being introduced for the Standard Tertiary Bursary as soon as possible. In December and again in March this year Mr Gandar agreed to NZUSA holding discussions on the Student Price Index proposal with departmental officials. But when a meeting was eventually held in late April, the officials refused to enter into serious discussions.
It was against this background that delegates from each students' association met at NZUSA's Council at Auckland University during the May holidays. NZUSA's Council decided to ask the Government for:
When NZUSA met Mr Gandar on 11 June to discuss these requests, he rejected all four of them out of hand. He refused to consider any further action on student bursaries until the Government's promised review had been completed. He made it clear that he was not prepared to consider a cost of living increase in the bursary this year and suggested that there might not be an increase at all until the new reformed bursary is introduced. In Mr Gandar's own words, this will not happen until
The Government's lack of action on student bursaries is part of its policy of cutting education spending.
The big increases in the cost of living this year have hit students like every other group in the community. The compensation the Government has allowed wage and salary earners has been small enough but university and technical institute students have received nothing! In the whole community, students are the only group to have received no compensation for inflation. Yet NZUSA's Student Price Index shows that students' cost of living has increased at a faster rate than the general Consumer Price Index.
Consider very carefully what Mr Gandar has told NZUSA representatives: there might not be an increase in student bursaries until
Remember that NZUSA has made every effort to co-operate with both Labour and National governments to improve the bursaries system. It is not NZUSA that has refused to talk!
In
We have done it before and we can do it again! Weigh up all the issues. Talk to your friends. Support the protests against government inaction on bursaries and cutbacks in education spending - your education and that of thousands of students throughout the education system is at stake.
Student Living Standards Going Downhill
When the Labour Government finally gave students their Standard Tertiary Bursary it was accepted as the first step towards the building of a "decent living wage".
But as with all fixed incomes, we have suffered brutally over the past year at the hands of inflation. Also, the standard bursary that we had envisaged, has turned out to be riddled with anomalies for large sections of the student population.
In the first term Salient heard many stories of despair when the first term bursary payment was delayed. Many were people living in flats, who only received $13 a week because their parents lived in a Wellington suburb. Others were female students, or students who couldn't get a holiday job, whose earnings were insufficient to tide them over until the first payment.
Unfortunately, when you're paying $18-$20 a week for rent and food, your $13-a-week bursary doesn't go very far, and if you're living in a university hostel then you may as well pack it in. For the PhD student who doesn't even receive an STB (one of the many anomalies), there is not much incentive to continue.
The Government is determined to keep up the cuts in education and not to adjust the level of bursaries until
Our national officers have put very detailed cost-of-living adjustment schemes before the Minister of Education and he has rejected them. Unless we win acceptance of a cost-of-living adjustment clause in the bursary regulations then we will be left forever to the generosity of the Government in power.
There is an extremely large proportion of students who are suffering because of bursary levels. If you think that you are surviving okay, think of these others when you are asked to support bursary increases.
The aftermath of the great 32 page issue last week means that all last week's Salient staff are dead. The obituary follows....
The leather version of John Ryall sweeps the barren office of the remaining pancreases and left aortas. Ex-sweeper Bruce Robinson smiles although the tears can still be seen glistening on his checks. Pat Bartle searches the typesetters room for her finger fatigue ointment signed by prominent Chinese women including Salient's Shanghai Correspondent, Rachel Scott.
Anti-empiricist tendencies reek through the Salient office in the form of Lindy Cassidy, well known for her saxaphone rendition of "The Communist Manifesto" and Leonie Morris who does the encores, namely "What is to be done". Still much of an unknown quantity, Kevin Swann dashes around in myopic fashion, narrowly missing Gyles Beckford and his deviationist bell ringers.
Patrick Mulrennan definitely has words as he eagerly dumps his latest consignment of "Socialist Action" in a nearby bush - quickly looking for the likes of Tony Lane.
Tom Duggan adopts a somewhat Levi-Straussian posture in the cafe, much to the amusement of on looking BCA students who are usually game. David Murray meanwhile demands service from the staff and eventually receives a deformed ice cream proving that you can't have your food and enjoy it too.
Ben Smith and Gerard Couper urge the remaining Trotskyists to join their newly formed ultra-leftist idealist party which also includes the well read Lynn Peck and the well green Lionel Klee.
Law fac sophisticates Mike Stephens and John McBride act strangely as they grapple with some hard-to-handle torts. Rose Desmond who only comes out on Friday winches as the thumb screws are applied by Maxim Gorky and Martin Doyle Jean Luc Ponty fiddles as Ziggy's burns.
Wogga wogga correspondent, Anthony Ward cracks tubes with Poulantzas as Gary Lewis indulges in left-wing jargon. Leigh Thompson dismisses Althusser with a Gramsciite flick of the hand and leaves Big Lenny dazed and leaning on the trusty Salient pitchfork as opposed to the Salient ice pick which isn't receiving as much use as it used to.
Elsie Van den Munckhof joins the nice but hard to pronounce names' list along with Roy. Bernard Randall insults Richard Mays in the original Romanian state servant John Henderson serves the whims of the State Services Commission Any Randians.
At this stage it might be appropriate to mention Robert Lithgow, well known token worker, and Salient's former Shanghai correspondent, Harold Merriman. Chris and Bernard Newman wandered in on Thursday evening and appear to be working - my god I hope it's not contagious.
So when all is said and done, the last word goes the neo-Marcusian-Stalinonihilist Luckacsians of which there are none We have great pleasure in presenting Salient Volume 39, Issue 15, Which we cannot guarantee as being as good as last week's bumper crop.
Salient is edited by John Ryall, published by Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association, and printed by Wanganui Newspapers, Drews Lane, Wanganui.
Assessment In The English Department
Forum Monday 12 July, 12 noon - Union Hall
There will be a Student Representative Council meeting (all students have a vote!) at 12 noon on Wednesday 14 July. The main topic of discussion will be Bursaries.
At May Council of NZUSA a Women's Commission was set up to meet at the August Council. In order to ensure that the maximum is achieved at this new commission the views of all people on campus, especially women is welcomed.
Any suggestions as to the format, the amount of time to be spent, who should chair the commission, and what issues and policies should be discussed are very much welcome.
Anyone interested, should write to Gyles Beckford c/- Students' Association, or come in and see me.
The competition is to be held this year in the Memorial Theatre at 8.00pm on Monday, August 2nd.
Seven or eight people will be selected to participate, speaking for ten minutes on a topic of their choice (subject to criticism and censorship).
Incentives include:
Would anyone who wishes to enter this prestigious and flatulent competition please communicate his or her intention (or at least, curiosity) to:
Linda Hardy, in room 305 of the English Dept prefabs - ext. no. 533; home number 757374
or
Barbara Doyle, room 202 in the English Dept., ext. no. 535; home no. 849586
On Monday 5th July, the students of Sosc 301 felt that they could no longer remain silent on their grievances about the way the course was being taught.
Once the first lecture was over, the student reps told the lecturer about the frustration they felt at the last Cirricullum Committee meeting. They were upset and voiced their disatisfaction at the student rep set-up, especially the difficulties found with getting wide-spread student opinion.
Then the subject of the Sosc 301 course was raised and almost immediately a lecture hall of docile and bored students became effervescent. The criticism of the course was widespread among class members and the criticisms were specific in nearly all cases. Among the criticisms voiced were:-
The students were free-ranging and scathing in their criticisms because all the lecturers had left and the second lecture had been cancelled. The session lasted just under an hour and gave a large number of students who had not spoken at any time during the year, an opportunity to give vent to their feelings about the course.
By the end of the meeting, a list of demands were drawn up to be presented to the staff. These were:-
The students voted to boycott classes if these demands were not met. Since then the reps have had discussion with the department and apparently a greater understanding of the problems has been achieved by both sides.
Nevertheless, this incident shows the power that students can muster if they are genuinely dissatisfied.
All Sosc 301 students are vigourously urged to attend a crucial meeting to formulate changes in this course. It will take place in LB2 at 1.10pm Monday 12 July
K. Dariku (Salient June 14) springs to the defence of economics. His argument basically is that economics is a positive science and as such only provides policy alternatives and cannot therefore be blamed for the problems arising from such policies that are non-economic. There are certain points in K Darika's letter which need to be looked at more closely.
Firstly he attacks Tony Ward's desert island analogy on the grounds that the problem was one for the physicist not the economist. The economist he says is concerned with the allocation of scarce resources. Accepting this viewpoint let us look at the allocation of resources in the real world, we find a world in which some of the worlds people need cures for indigestion while others starve. One gets the impression that economists are being very successful in their allocation of resources i.e. they are falling down on their specific task.
K. Sarika defends unrealistic models on the grounds that they:
The first assumption may be correct although I find it hard to believe that an abstract model is a better tool to learning than a concrete reality. As regards the second point to attempt to base an understanding of a world economy dominated by large firms upon a foundation of a perfectly competitive model is a little like building the new Cotton building on Cardboard piles.
Thirdly, he states that the economist does not decide what should be done but instead places economic facts before decision makers who decide policy. On these grounds the economist is not to blame for bad decisions. However the quality of any decision is affected by the quality of the facts put before the policy makers. An example would be during the depression when many economists continued to advise Governments to balance their budgets thus exacerbating the problem of unemployment. Would K. Sarika absolve the economists of the time of all responsibility for that situation?
Finally, k. Sarika maintains that it is up to the people to choose Communism, Capitalism or Socialism. I would like to hear him expound that theory to the people of Chile, He may find that the directors of ITT have a bit more to say than the average Chilean voter.
In many ways K. Sarika, a student of Economics, proves Tony Ward's point about assuming you have a can opener. He 'assumes' that unrealistic abstraction helps you understand reality, he 'assumes' that the facts put before decision-makers not affect the decisions and he 'assumes' that in a world of inequality the opinion of the people is paramount. It would seem that he has learnt his economic lessons well!
Student in ENGL 213 (Shakespeare) circulated a petition to ascertain the feelings of students on methods of assessment. The responses to the question "Which form of assessment would you prefer" were:
This survey conclusively shows that 92% of students want some change to assessment and that the majority want a form - the double chance system - that the compromise posed by Prof. McKenzie doesn't really satisfy. This compromise means students are still forced to do well in the final exam and goes against the spirit of the opinion expressed by a majority of students.
The second question asked referred to the terms requirements. The responses were:
Although the results are less conclusive than the first part they still show that almost half want some change to the terms requirements. The change that should be discussed is the abolistion of the terms test (many people mentioned this specifically on their questionnaires).
Dear John, and members of the geography department,
I'd like to agree most firmly with Garth Baker who saw it fit to pass comment about GEOG 101, its organisation and its characters some weeks back in Salient. Matters concerning organisation have been pretty pathetically formulated this year, and there have been that many changes within the course structure that its no longer funny
To take a few examples:
My impression before I came to this institution was that much of your knowledge gained was from the tutorials. But whoever gave me that impression obviously never undertook the study of GEOG 101, for I. along with others with whom I have conversed, have found stage one geography tutorials utterly boring. But because of some ill-designed and pathetically unoriginal rules, students must attend 80% of tuts through the year for terms.
The third example of typical GEOG 101 disorganisation is found in the
Obviously somebody never did their homework.
But we were never told about the mistake, even though a second outline was on the loose. In the second outline, the study fortnight was catered for correctly but only dates and the initials of lecturers were given.
So geography students heave in their folders two conflicting course outlines both inadequately completed, while not being aware which of the two is correct, if either are correct at all.
— then we have the question of which essays are compulsory and which ones are not. Both myself and other students are uncertain in regard to this question and also the question of which essays count towards the final mark.
Briefly:
GEOG 101, its organisation and its structure need a good swift kick where it hurts.
Signed Facetious. Ostentatious, The Lot.
At twelve I arrived with pen and paper to report on, (as duly assigned), the Thursday debate.
The Union Hall was unusually empty and when a man stood up to announce a talk on Consumer Affairs I knew I had the wrong venue.
I was greatly tempted to stay and eat my lunch but Mr Pro said find the debate'.
I dashed off to the Memorial Theatre to find 60 people quite attentively watching the Young Socialists and the Debating orate on the proposition:
"That Groucho Marx made a greater contribution to mankind than Karl Marx".
The debate was full of humour and personal or at least ideological attacks and as a good 40 minutes of lunch time entertainment, went down pretty well.
The Young Socialists represented by one male in American revolutionary hat and another in a Chinese revolutionary hat claimed Groucho used humour, the reaction of his depression period upbringing, to alleviate the suffering of people. They called his humour racist, sexist and deadly cynical. And went as far as comparing the relationship of Groucho & Karl as artist and scientist, or if you like Isaac. Newton and Vera Lynn. Hardly compatible and a good point.
The Professional debaters spoke with considerable skill explaining that the swear words used by the Trotskyite Marxists was the result of the inarticulates trying to express themselves.
A Moonist began singing in the stalls and our chairperson whom the debaters tried not to label with sexist words like "chairman", called the debate a draw. She did however have an unfortunate problem with her foot which was used as a substitute for a bell.
During the debate, one Young Socialist fell off the stage and the general message I got was that Communism killed humour while Socialists didn't want to laugh at the world but to change it.
A compendium of 19 sociological analyses of New Zealand society, primarily through Marxist perspectives. Orders can be placed in Studass Office. Price $1.50
Today we exist in a capacious Scientific Technological era. Man has set foot on Terra's satilate, Luna, and is preparing for manned flights' to Mars and a hopeful manned landing by
As society advances into the 21st Century A.D., more careful thought must be given to the criminal and criminal institutions. The emphasis must be on Rehabilitation, not punishment. Though mention has been made in Parliament and in Law Amendment Bills to find a solution to imprisonment. The action must be now.
The criminal, may it be man or woman has a human and constitutional right to live without fear or ridicule in society after or before conviction or imprisonment no matter the nature of the crime.
When Social Security was first introduced into New Zealand in the late
For the criminal, freedom of movement is frowned upon by the Justice Department. They like the criminal to stay in one place where an eye can be kep upon them If a person on probation moves from one city to another he can be taken to court for "Breach Of Probation" which results either in a maximum fine Of $400 or 3 months imprisonment. Yet, the person on probation, has by law, the right to move as long as he/she reports to the nearest probation office within 24 hours of arrival.
To interfere with a persons right to move is interfering with a human instinct - immigration or migration.
The law should exist for the invidual - not the state, and this is were facism is taking over from democracy in this country. New Zealand is fast becoming a Police controlled state, approved by National and Labour parliamentarians.
A law exists under the Child Welfare Act where a policeman who has reason to believe that a child is being ill-treated, search any premises without a search warrant and can force entry if need be. The police have far too much power now.
Take these young eighteen and nineteen year old cops: what do they know about society? humanity? marital relationships and so on. I say that all policemen/women should be trained fully in pyschoanalysis, humanities, marital relations, Christianity and they should all be married at least for three years before joining the force.
They should be on 'probation' learning about life, not how to arrest defenceless old drunks, whom will be fined $10 - $15. Society gave him the booze and then learns it cannot control its own decadence.
What is needed is men who can correct our failing society. Men who have the guts to face critical groups; Men who can say: "This is the Atomic Era. We don't need that 200 year old building Captain Cook spat in. Pull it down: Up with a new one. Buildings like that belong in a museum, not in the middle of a city - or suburb."
But no, we have a lot of fat-arsed old men, cowards, afraid of losing their prestige at the local darts' club or at the next elections. They are thinking of themselves, not of their country and so society keeps on falling more so into retrogression.
Criminals are not demons; But Prisons are hell and that money sent overseas could be well used here for criminal rehabilitation and less crowded prisons. The criminal is societys' problem whether society likes it or not Therefore they must be prepared to help and understand the criminal. They are not robots, they feel, love, remorse, hatred and all other emotions. They have wifes and children. Are their children to suffer also because society isn't prepared to help them. Their children suffer in lonliness while "Dad's" in prison, and the mother telling the children lies so not to hurt them! The children running 'wild' on 'Mum' because dads not their to correct them - in the end - the inevitable - the breakup of a once happy marriage - brought about by societies decadence.
"Punishment to fit the crime" is out of date. "Society must be protect" is obsolete. Yes, prisons are still used to punish, rather than to cure.
What is needed is a panel or skilled professionals in fields such as: Medicine, Psychiatrists, Criminologists, Penologists, Brain specialists, Social Workers, Education staff and Labour Department officials, who would be dedicated to the full cure and rehabilitation of a criminal. Probation officers excluded, for they are too biased.
A skilled panel like this could examine a prisoner on remand and make sound recommendations before sentence. There would be time to seel all staff in the 14 to 21 days the prisoner is on remand. The board could also sit at various prisons and borstals throughout the country once very three months or six months for a week or a fortnight interviewing and examining sentenced prisoners. The criminal has a right to be protected from his own, sometimes involuntary, actions
A "Golden Kiwi" grant to a panel like this would do far more good than it does when presented to some obscure culture organisation, which does not earn this country any money, while the criminal, who is kept at $3 per head annually, could be out earning his living. With 4,000 odd prisoners in New Zealander prisons and with Warden's wages the cost annually amounts to over $1 million dollars.
All criminals have a psychological problem, some deeper than others. The majority of these are never given the chance to speak of this, or have it found out why they offend. Because there is no help, they can't help but re-offend. So with NZ superb psychriatric services, why are they not used to their best possible advantages. If it is lack of skilled personnel then attract them from overseas; even if political asylum must be given to persons from communist or Asian countries.
There are many problems an offender will not speak of because they are either deviant, being 'big', plian scared to be called 'mad' or 'unsettled' or trying to keep to the prisoners' so-called 'code'.
The Prisoner's code:
I can't crawl to screws (cops, prison officers, etc), anyone who does is a 'Nark", "topper" or has "Hands on his stomach" or "Brown Ankles" or is "Pushing a third" remission.
The offender often lands in prison, usually after being represented by an uninterested legal aid lawyer, and a scanty if any, psychiatirc report, and the all-damaging probation report. The latter is caused by the Probation Officer incompetence and utter disregard to the truth, or to be able to interpret a situation clearly. This causes the offender to feel resentment and though telling the truth the P O twists to the way He Thinks it is, or was; therefore placing a bad misinterpretation before a judge or magistrate.
When prisoners are released they often have no employment no place to live and inadequate money from prison earnings. This is not rehabilitation and often leads to further crime being perpetuated.
For men serving sentences I put forward these suggestions: All persons serving 12 months or more be made by law to learn a trade of thier chosing (within reason).
All prisoners to be paid union rates, with board, tax taken off. If a prisoner commits an offence in prison, fine him. The money he earns to be banked for his release
Pre release and home leave to be made compulsory (except for murderers until having done 7 years).
Prisoners to have choice of treaining in civil defence, fire-brigade or St. John Ambulance. These three could hold courses at prisons and prisoners to be given field work experience. (Make them to feel wanted)
Special squads trained in rescue work, working with the police, instead of against them. The prison rescue squads would be at the scene of an accident or looking for lost bush-parties in half the time other rescue squads take - because the squad is congregated in one central place.
Get the prisoners interested in community interests by integrating them, aiding them, giving them sound advice and good community training. Society will then, arise from its own decadence.
With efforts like these criminals will begin to feel wanted and have gained a track and a interest in either civil defence, St Johns and the Fire Brigade.
The writer of this has been a civil defence warden and in
Two recent incidents, the attack on a member of Gay Liberation at a Women's Choice Club wine-and-cheese and the arrest in Christchurch of a Labour Member of Parliament for "indecent assault", only serve to highlight the continuing oppression of homosexuals in our society and the savage inequality in New Zealand law. It is our view that society at large is the real criminal in such cases, not the specific individuals involved.
In what other case would the victim of a crime of violence be forced to become the defendant, while those who committed the violence are invited to bring charges? (Significantly, the only comparable case is rape) Gay people are subject to blackmail, and to mugging, and in each case, although the victim of the crime, it is they who stand to suffer at the hands of the law.
In the eyes of many, "queer-bashing" is not just condoned, it is even seen as a protective service. The M.P. was lucky, he's still alive; the victim of the Hagley Park murder in
These students, who have been threatened with expulsion, are putting up as their excuse (of course) that their victim made "indecent advances". This happens to be a lie; their victim had more discrimination than that. But suppose for a minute their victim was a woman. For a start, if she had made "indecent advances", would they have beaten her up? And if they had, could they have offered this as an excuse?
But gay women are in no way immune from this form of oppression. For instance, at a recent National Lesbian Conference in Bristol a social was invaded by a group of men who severely beat up several of the women. In a statement following this, the women said: "On this occasion as on numerous others lesbians have been physically attacked by men who simply cannot face up to the reality that a group of women do not in any way depend on them for their physical emotional, and sexual needs." And even if she escapes actual violence, any gay woman will tell you she is continually pestered by "indecent advances" from straight men.
Can we be surprised that such violence is so often tacitly condoned, when the law itself condones it? The role of the Christchurch police in the M.P.'s case is open to serious question. Instead of acting on the complain laid by the M.P., they actually chose to bring charges, making him defendant rather than victim. Here is a case of police prejudice against homosexuals. In the eyes of the police it was worse to attempt to express a sexual emotion for another human being than to brutalise another human being to the point of necessitation prolonged hospitalisation.
Gay Liberation protests against the attitude of the press in this case. The press opposed the suppression of the M.P.'s name; but its revelation only allowed him to be discredited out of blatant prejudice and morbid sensationalism. We are for changes in society so that such publication would cease to have such a drastic effect on the individual concerned. We regret that secrecy in such matters is only contributory to an atmosphere of ignorance and fear. Ironically, the abysmal record of the Labour Party itself on the question of support for gay rights is a further contributory cause.
The career of the M.P. concerned is now irreparably damaged, but this is totally regardless of his "guilt" or "innocence" of the "crime". Mr Thorpe has suffered a similar fate in Britain, apparently only as a result of a frame-up by South African interests opposed to his anti-apartheid position Can we be sure there are no similarly corrupt political interests in this case?
Gay Liberation is for a society in which people live lives along the natural continuum of sexuality from exclusively homosexual to exclusively heterosexual, free from guilt, and free from fear of losing job and status. Were this the case, it is unlikely that certain homosexuals would feel so ashamed of their own sexuality they are driven to violence in the attempt to deny it. We demand the repeal of all anti-homosexual laws and the banning of all discrimination against gays, which would go a long way towards creating an atmosphere in which situations such as those mentioned here could no longer occur. A situation in which the victim of a crime of violence becomes the accused is an obvious travesty of justice.
(Gay Liberation has general meetings in the Union Building every other Thursday at 7 30pm - next meeting is July 22nd General meetings hear and discuss reports from activity groups made up of any interested members. At present, a political activities gorup handles press releases, pressurising activities such as pickets of party conferences, and the organising of participation in, for instance, the Abortion Rally; a social welfare group arranges talks to schools, social workers, and psychiatric nurses and is sending out questionnaires to G.P.'s; a literature group is reviewing the availability of gay books in libraries and plans to establish its own bibliography and library of such books. Women's and men's consciousness-raising groups are operating, and occasional social functions are held. Plans are under way for public activities for a Gay Pride Week later this month. General meetings also hear educationsl discussions on relevant topics, for instance, recently, transsexualism, and lesbian separatism. All gay women and men students are not just welcome, but are urged to participate.)
Note:
They are cheap. They stock the cheapest brands which are not always the best.
They are often out of stock of the basics. They do not have a great variety of goods. Everything is clearly priced.
They are dear. A lot of their stock is upriced. Often their specials are still dearer than anywhere else in town!
Too dear
They are cheap Everything is clearly priced. You have a great variety of goods of choose from. Their specials are specials.
Buying a bundle of groceries in one of the dearer stores is going to cost you about 16% more than if you bought them at one of the cheaper stores.
Although Shoprite appears to be marginally cheaper than Woolworths, Woolworths has a greater variety and you are more likely to get what you want.
Look around you. If you're in the cafe, camping out in the ticket purchase queue or eating a horse-arse pie, thank your lucky star at least Salient, in a similar way to Air New Zealand gives you a good deal.
Here within these very pages is an example of a free press, hampered only by the scruples of our printer and several outdated defamation laws. Unlike Hugh's rehash of broadcasting, most newspapers are "free from political control".
As you eat your fish and chip (singular) which now cost you half a well-deserved bursary dollar, consider the week.
While the accountants on the Treasury benches cut democracy as well as minimal costs out of TV news. The Week, a new "independent" paper makes it out for a fourth time.
Co-edited by Keith Ovendon, not only it's financial viability is in doubt.
Truth (it's liberal opposition) treats the Week with scorn. Calling The Week a "left-wing publication" in its usual satirical fashion, neo-fascist Truth illuminates the newcomers "communist connections". Truth readers might be shocked to know the delicate shade of red that is the colour of its editors underwear.
While you figure out why an ambidextrous rag like Salient permits me to go on like this I'll make my getaway.
Templeton resurrected the old NZBC news effort, The Word, so that Nats everywhere would not have the overwhelming choice of missing out on Starsky and Hutch so they could see themselves on TV1 A satisfaction of vanities. Templeton, say many, did so against his own volition, the price of collective irresponsibility and being number 20 in a cabinet stacked with 19 other class-less myths.
Last week I went to see what it was all about. Leaping the 43 steps, I entered Parliament and was officially welcomed by the ex servicemen who serve as guides. After showing me all their medals and turning off their hearing aides I slipped undetected through their security conscious gazes. Awakening the usher, I was directed to a seat next to some people doing a child pyschology course. What little I could see was a bit on the Noes.
Bloody oath over there yes I had sighted the elusive Labour MP. The speaker, a man in a wig and sporting a refined accent, introduced him to the House, but I recognised him immediately, of course.
Bill stood, eyes twinkling. This was what made it worthwhile getting up in the morning, he smiled and began spouting figures, abuse and points of disorder. Labour is still defending its administration.
As Honourable and not so honourable gentlemen wandered around, a new MP not yet struck by the beauty of Hansard's female reporter talked about the weather.
Leaving hurriedly, I walked the busy streets of Wellington trying to think of analogies. Freedom is like Syphilis, not all of you know you have it. Others who know, don't tell. We have a qualified freedom in New Zealand. Just like broadcasting, the press may go. Already sport is dead due to an attack of professionalism
I'll leave you with the thought that if Labour and National didn't exist, Social C Credit would be the government and our bursaries might be funny money, cups of tea would fall from the sky and happiness would reign. Actually, the first law of economics is: There are no free lunches, not at the cafe anyway.
You should see Bellamy's prices.
With exams over what's new in the lives of our intrepid due? 'Gym' and 'Dance-room' arriving at Sam on the day after exams were dumbfounded to find that the Gym will now be opening at 9 am but closing at the new late hour of 11 pm. What devilish plots will be hatched around the exercycle in the twilight hours?
'Dance-room' at last obtained a chance to learn to Ski. Yes there are some places open in the classes. With the wind whipping past his face as he sped down the indoor ski slope 'Dance-room' secretly gave thanks to the fitness class. (Thursday at 5pm mixed of course). Not a million miles away to the right of the ski-slope flew 'Gym'. Plucky 'Gym'; for he had tried the New, Never Before seen, Thrilling, Etc. Acrobatics classes. (Tuesday at 2pm). Flying through the air with the greatest of ease 'Gym' discovered the art of diving into fiery cups of Drink Vending Machine Cola, from the top of von Zedlitz. What greater thrill could any student want?
Our terrible twosome were quick to start the time-honoured badminton classes, (Tuesday 10am-l 100am, Friday 10am-11am. and 11am-12am) Extremely relaxing after early morning lectures, and conversely bringing one to hights of concentration and vigour prior to an afternoon think session.
Contrary to popular opinion, the forthcoming 'Heat way' rally will not be passing through the Gym, but for those poor souls who thought that it was (and for any one else) the exercycles are available with programmes of how to use them. 'Gym' and 'Dance-room' consoled themselves by doing the 'Tour de France" sur le spot.
Questions to be answered by next week; 'Gym' and 'Dance-room' must have the answers. Why are there no men coming to Women's Keep Fit? (Tuesday 1-2 Thursday 12-1) Can you shuttle backwards and forwards between badminton classes? Have you ever seen a piste skier? Read this space next week for yet another adventure through the leisure hours of V.U.W. with Gym' Cassidy and the 'Dance-room' kid.
During the second half of the second term there will be time available in the Gymnasium for any bona fide student group not already on the Gym timetable. This period from 5-7pm on Sundays, may be applied for by such groups and allocation will be made according to the numbers of applications Closing date for applications will be Wednesday June 30th (12noon) and must be made in writing to any member of the Gym staff.
Said Hussein Onn:
"have made my choice and can only pray and hope that the choice is a correct one and that he (Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad) will he accepted and supported by the country generally" — Far Eastern Economic Review, 19th March, 1976.
This was an irresponsible statement made by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Hussein Onn, after the announcement of his new cabinet on
Dr. Mahathir, who is a medical practitioner with a middle class background, has not only retained his former position, Minister of Education, but has also been promoted to Deputy Prime Minister.
This decision was made in the last few minutes prior to the announcement The former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ghafar Baba, the most senior vice-president of UMNO (United Malay National Organisation) after Hussein Onn, has quietly left the government after losing to Dr. Mahathir this high-ranking prestigious position.
This unexpected change of power - Dr. Mahathir as the Deputy Prime Minister - shocked the people because he has been publicily recognised as an extreme racist figure.
His blatant and unashamed racist stance is clearly indicated in his spurious and disruptive book "The Malay Dilemma" which is now banned in Malaysia. Dr. Mahathir belongs to a group whose ideology is, to put it in a word, "racialism." He would definitely prefer kicking out the MCA (Malayan Chinese Association) and MIC (Malayan Indian Congress) as well from UMNO so that a few Malays who are selfishly concerned with only their own power and wealth could monopolise the complete "political market" in Malaysia (refer The May 13 Incident" by Tunku Abdul Raman, former Prime Minister of Malaysia).
"......Deep within them (The Malays) there is a conviction that no matter what they decide or do, things will continue to slip from their control: that slowly hut surety they are becoming the dispossessed in their own land. This is the Malay Dilemma."
This statement is dangerously provocative, perhaps intended to be so by the writer. To whose hands has the Malays' lion share slipped into? To the majority of the Chinese? This is obviously not the case simply because a large majority of Chinese just like their non-Chinese counterparts are poor, "....that there are among them (Chinese) workers and peasants who are as badly off as the poor Malays......even among the Malays..... there are those who act as businessmen and even money-lenders and who also take advantage of their own kind through various type of usurious practices..." [S. Hussein Ali : Malay Peasant Society and Leadership,
All "Majorities" in Malaysia are in the same position of poverty. Dr Mahathir, in this book published in Singapore
Dr Mahathir should have realised that the present state of the Malays was created by the British Empire under the "divide and rule" policy so that the people in Malaysia could never be united and consequently the rich resources could be made easily accessible and the "cheap" labour could be ruthlessly exploited.
Our economic function has never been directed to develop our own country. Malaysia is only a 'raw-materials supplier' and is regarded as an valuable market for the expanding industries of the 'parent' countries. Our neo-colonial economy is structured by the colonists particularly the Anglo-American and the Japanese. These affluent nations have been developing their countries at the expense of the underdeveloped third world countries, Malaysia inclusive. They have thwarted any attempt towards any kind of autonomous and balanced development. They have created a new puppet class the "colonial middle class", of which Dr Mahathir is one.
In the review of the "The Malay Dilemma", G. Raman stresses that "to him (the ordinary Malay) ail rich men are the same, they are interested in maximising their own profits at the expense of the poor and the not-so-rich. Aren't there landlords belonging to a particular race who exploit members of their own race?"
In fact in any community, Malay or non-Malay, there exists class conflict, as evident in the areas of production in agricultural products and in marketing in doing business. In the former, the landlords (probably about 8% of the total population in such community) always greedily look for crop-shares and rents to be increased. These high shares and rents will certainly be obtained at the expense of the interests of the poor peasants who are share-croppers and tenants. Quite often, those poor peasants who cannot afford to meet the landlords' demands may even be replaced. In the latter case, the shopkeepers and middlemen all the times try to maximize profits by 'selling high' and 'buying low' in their dealing with their clients. This illustrates how the rich and only the rich can exploit the poor within the same race. I really don't believe that the rich of any race would assist the poor of that race.
The Tasek Utara landless squatter issue and Baling Malay peasants demonstrations have clearly shaken the very foundation of the Dr Mahathir's 'Malay Dilemma'. These two issues also have unmasked the falsity of the statement made above ".....the policy of a government supported by a huge majority of poor Malay......". Although the Malays are supposed to be the specially privileged people as stated categorically in the constitution of Malaysia (that is they enjoy special privilege) in actual fact, it is only the rich Malays who have the opportunity to enjoy these privileged rights - the right to do logging, the right to have scholarships, the right to have all kinds of licences, etc. Dr Syed Hussein Ali, the associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology of the University of Malaya, who had been detained without trial in "It is the policy of the government to create a class of wealthy Malays and consequently in the rural areas there is a tendency for the leader-brokers to become more wealthy. Thus they have less time to articulate the needs and aspirations of the poor peasants who are hard-pressed, especially with the present trend of falling prices for their agricultural produce and rising prices of food and clothing. When these deprived persons try to get the help of the local leader-brokers, they find that they have to wait for a very long time and on most occasions in vain. Furthermore, the leader-brokers and those in higher positions above them tend to recommend their friends and relatives to be considered for acquiring land or gaining employment or they may insist on giving preference to party members or supporters. One consequence of this is that poor and landless peasants are forced to adopt illegal means of opening up land".
[Malay Peasant Society and Leadership]
What Dr. Hussein Ali has clearly pointed out here are:
The political and economic structure of Malaysia is still basically neo-colonial. In other words, the people's destiny is dependent upon those powerful colonialists. Since "Independence" in
Dr Mahathir's attempt to reverse the tide of history, to avoid looking at the real root-cause of our backwardness should be strongly condemned. His argument is racially and emotionally biased and credely over-simplistic and lacks foresight and hindsight. He should have at least attempted to familiarise himself with the trend of historical development of British colonies I before he put pen to paper on his 'Malay Dilemma' which reflects nothing more than the dilemma of his own muddled - thoughts.
In fact the poor workers and peasants in Malaysia can be easily distinguished as a class by itself but so far have not yet been able to unite and act as a class for itself. It is because the Malaysian government by all ways and means, (eg via repressive laws and regulations) tries not to promote class politics and ideology and therefore that class consciousness has not been able to gain a foothold. This is a fact which has also escaped the attention of the Malaysian intellectuals at home and abroad
To the Malaysian Government, the students' responsibility is to make the best of a formal education. Social change has nothing to do with these "immature" students. This is surely sound advice for the selfish few. We should always bear in mind that "...we are all in the university at the expense of many others. Remember our responsibility to society, our responsibility to justice, equality and freedom". [Tan Wah Piew, former President of the Student Union of Singapore University].
Terry Auld's article "Who's the Best Marxman" (Part 1) pulled the "crucial question in this debate" out of the hat: "What is the real nature of Soviet society today?"
This debate is in fact continuing world-wide among those who have up till now followed Peking's view that the Soviet Union had "restored capitalism".
This is because the rhetoric of the Chinese government has taken a new turn, in that it now regards the Soviet Union as the "main danger" in the world today. This view, which happens to coincide with the statements of the United States imperialists (Terry Auld even quotes Henry Kissinger and Helmut Sonnenfelt as two of his authorities!) has repelled many of those who in the past uncritically supported China's foreign policy.
For example, Irwin Silber, the editor of The Guardian, the leading Maoist weekly in American, said in a speech recently that Peking's view of the Soviet Union as the main danger is a "profound historical error..... the struggle against U.S. imperialism is the main objective." He described the United States as the "chief prop of Western imperialism" and the "most powerful oppressive and exploiting force in the world".
Terry Auld, on the other hand, is still sucking on his Peking life saver.
Much of his talk about "Soviet imperialism" has hinged on the question of military might. But in "Who's the Best Marxman", Auld admits that this is not sufficient, that what is important is the economic and social system of a country. Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism - when the U.S. wields the big stick, as it did in Korea, in Cuba, and Vietnam and in Chile, it is in direct defence of its economic interests. So now Auld tries to prove that the USSR is challenging the U.S. economically, pointing to a succession of examples of Russian investment overseas. (We must note that Auld gives the source for none of this information, which makes it difficult to check on and to see in context.)
Even if the Russian investments that Auld cites were those of a capitalist country, they hardly suggest that the Soviet Union is challenging the United States for "hegemony". He can only unearth some economic ventures of pipsqueak proportions.
Auld points to the example of motor vehicle and tractor assembly plants in Belgium. These are, he says the "Soviet equivalent of Ford and GM". But the combined gross product of Ford and General Motors exceeds by far that of the whole of Belgium!" (
Auld then talks about the "Singaporean joint stock company, Marissco, which has a joint stock of $12 million". But even the top 19 companies in New Zealand have each a capital of more than $12 million! (Guide to the Top N.Z. Companies,
Not one Soviet "joint stock company" is even among the 300 largest corporations outside the United States; the Soviet bank is not one of the 50 largest non-U S. banks (as listed in Fortune,
This is in complete contrast to the United States, which has spread its investments everywhere and which is visibly the major force in the world capitalist economy.
An example of the contrast between the Soviet Union and American can be seen in Angola, where, although Soviet aid backed the winning side in Uncivil war (the MPLA), it is the U.S. today which is reestablishing investments there on a vast scale. The U.S. company Gulf Oil is continuing to extract huge profits from Angola.
Auld-himself admits that he "never made any such claim that Soviet investments were challenging those of U.S corporations in these (third world) countries." Then he tries to dodge the point by simply declaring that this is not 'in any way significant to my argument."
But the whole thrust of his argument is that the USSR is "in the ascendancy", that it is challenging the United States for world domination. How can this be if the Soviet Union is not a serious economic competitor for world markets?
The build-up of the Soviet Union's military forces is not a manifestation of "imperialist" rivalry, but is caused by other factors.
What then are these factors? And if the Soviet Union is not imperialist, then what are these joint-stock companies, and why does it set up banks in capitalist countries?
The fact is that all post-capitalist states have to trade with capitalist countries. Chinese international trade takes the same form as that of Russia. In fact by Auld's definition, China should be "state capitalist" and "imperialist' too. For example, China provided a $412 million loan to build the railway from Tanzania to Zambia (Current Scene). Part of the agreement of this loan was that both African countries agreed to import Chinese goods, many of them of dubious quality and some in competition with local products. But does this alone make China a "capitalist" nation?
The need for post-capitalist countries to trade in an international capitalist market also necessitates a certain amount of competition with capitalist enterprises: for example. Chinese competition with Indonesia for the Japanese oil market affects Indonesian oil production to the extent that it dropped 5 per cent in
Only to the extent that China and Russia do trade with capitalist countries do they show one of the unavoidable features of modern capitalism - inflation.
The fact that the Soviet Union and China have similar economies is shown in their mutual trade, which is not subject to the inflation of inter-capitalist trade (Current Scene - Developments in the People's Republic of China, Vol XII No. 12).
All these factors have raised doubts in many people's minds as to whether Russia has really restored capitalism. Guardian editor Irwin Silber, in the same speech quoted above posed four questions that Marxists-have to answer if they are to show that this has happened: to what degree has private property been restored in the USSR? Is there production fur private profit? Can a "capitalist" economy have no unemployment? And is private property inherited in the Soviet Union?
Auld answers none of these questions. Instead he states blandly that Russia is "state monopoly capitalist", proceeds to a piecemeal analysis of Soviet "imperialism" and mentions nothing specific about Russia's internal economy.
Auld quotes from Engels' "Anti-Duhring" in an attempt to prove that the Soviet Union is "national capitalist". But when this quote is read in its original context it can be seen that Engels is referring to the drive of the capitalist state to take over certain industries - like the N.Z. railways! As Engels says "....... this necessity for conversion into state property is felt first in the great institutions for intercourse and communication - the post office, the telegraphs, the railways" (Anti-Duhring, Part 3 Chapter 3). In other words, Auld's example has no relevance to modern-day Russia.
Lenin had some words for those who misuse quotes from Marxist writings as Terry Auld has done with this one: "Marxism is an extremely profound and many-sided doctrine. It is, therefore, no wonder that scraps of quotations from Marx - especially when the quotations are made inappropriately - can always be found among the 'arguments' of those who break with Marxism." (Collected Works, Vol 26, p. 212).
If Auld wants to show that the Soviet Union is "national capitalist", he has to prove that the state has again changed hands. In other words, for a workers' state to become capitalist again, it has to undergo a counterrevolution. And just as a revolution involves the sharp build-up of conflicting class forces, usually accompanied by violence, so does a counterrevolution. Just as there is no "peaceful road" to socialism, there is no "peaceful return" to capitalism.
Auld does not say when and how such a counter-revolution occurred in the Soviet Union. Elsewhere (in the China Society pamphlet China's Foreign Policy), he implies that capitalism was somehow restored after the death of Stalin: "we must understand that things have changed dramatically since Stalin's time. The Soviet Union is no longer a socialist country....." Yet he cannot put a date on this!
The key thing for Terry Auld and for the Peking leaders, who still carry on the policies of Joseph Stalin, is the fact that the Soviet leadership under Khrusehev made some criticisms of Stalin. They are much more concerned with this heresy than with bothering to prove in real terms that a social or economic transformation has taken place in Russia.
There is a parallel to this in the case of Rumania, which is a part of the Soviet Bloc, Comecon and the Warsaw Pact. Yet because Rumania has not criticised the Chinese leadership as severely as has the Kremlin, it remains "socialist" in the eyes of Peking.
Auld comes closest to the true nature of the Soviet bureaucracy when he says that "through its control of the party and the state, the Soviet bureaucracy owns, controls and directs the means of production...." He also says that the "legal social relations.... are still socialist", but he tries to draw a distinction between the legal relations and the "actual social relations". (Our emphasis.)
Auld is correct when he says that the bureaucracy controls the means of production, but not when he says it owns it.
Production in Russia is controlled by the government, through conscious planning, and not subject to the anarchy of the capitalist market. Such characteristics of capitalism as unemployment and inflation do not feature in the Soviet Union.
Furthermore, the Russian bureaucrats have no stocks or bonds, and cannot pass on their powers to their heirs. Compare that to the Rockefellers and Fords!
It makes more sense to describe the rulers of the Soviet Union as a "bureaucracy" (as Auld does in many places) rather than a "ruling class". That is, not simply a government administration, but an administration whose power and privilege have become ends in themselves. The Soviet bureaucrats are privileged in relation to the living standards of the working people: for example, they have access to (and can afford) luxury goods that the mass of the population can only look at through shop windows.
But the existence of this privileged ruling social group does not date merely from the
Trotsky criticised the bureaucracy's privileges: "since the soviet cadres (key decision-makers) come forward under a socialist banner, they demand an almost divine veneration and a continually rising salary... (The bureaucrats) occupy lordly apartments, enjoy several summer houses in various parts of the country, have the best automobiles at their disposal, and have long ago forgotten how to shine their shoes."
He also dealt with the argument, which was even then being raised, that the bureaucracy was a "ruling class" in the Marxist sense. The bureaucrats do not derive their wealth from ownership of shares he says, but "The bureaucracy enjoys its privileges under the form of an abuse of power."
The Soviet bureaucracy was not discovered by Trotsky, but was a problem discussed by Lenin, who died in
What Trotsky saw in later years was that under Stalin this bureaucracy had become a hardened, quite distinct, privileged social layer, which he described as a "caste". This bureaucracy was, and still is, not merely characterised by its privileged position, but by its political conservatism, its desire to maintain the status quo both internally and internationally This was reflected in the Soviet regime's policy of "Socialism in one country" - or in today's terminology "peaceful coexistence" or "detente" with imperialism.
The bureaucrats also introduced rigid control of political discussion and expression. What the Soviet regime viewed as "Marxism" became a sort of official religion, instead of a system of critical thought as Marx had intended. Any dissidents were cracked down on severly, and this process led in the
This thoroughly repressive approach, against any and every individual who differs with the official policy, was adopted in not just Russia but in China as well. The Maoist regime, which has always proclaimed its links with the traditions of Stalin, today reviles anyone who steps out of line, including top government officials Recent examples of this process are former Chinese Premier Liu Shao-Chi; Mao's "close comrade in arms and successor" Lin Piao, and Teng Hsia-Ping, rumoured to have been in line for the "succession" to Chou En-lai. None of these figures have had a chance to answer publicly the mountain of charges upon them, "capitalist roader", "Kuomintang agent", "Trotskyite". "big scab" etc etc etc. Democratic freedoms (of speech, publishing etc) exist no more in China than they do in Russia.
The Sino-Soviet split of the
Despite the privilege and conservatism of the bureaucracies however, the progressive social essence of the Russian and Chinese revolutions, the material gains embodied in socialised industry, remains. This is why the working people in those countries have rallied to their defence - most outstandingly when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. This is also the explanation for the "much higher morale" in the Russian as opposed to the Nato armed forces, which Terry Auld seems so worried about.
The Soviet Union (and China) have always had a defensive stance. They have been forced to build up their armed forces (including a nuclear capability) because of the agressive actions and military buildup of the United States and its imperialist allies. It is the imperialist powers of Western Europe, Japan and North America who have been the prime cause of world tension ever since the Russian revolution of
The government's anti-Russian campaign is an anti-communist campaign, with the aim of weakening support for and undermining the post-capitalist states. Right-wingers like Muldoon are opposed to the Soviet Union (and China) because these countries represent a huge area of the world removed from the domain of the stock market and the imperialist cash register. There is nothing that they would like to do more than to overthrow the conquests of the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
This is why it is foolish for socialists to go along with the anti-Russia campaign of Muldoon.
To sum up: in our view the Soviet Union is neither capitalist nor socialist. It is a contradictory society halfway between capitalism and socialism in which
We take the side of the Russian working people in this conflict, both in their opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy and in their confrontation with the capitalist enemies of the Russian revolution. In lining up with Muldoon against Russia, Terry Auld is joining that enemy camp.
Last week's article on the planned activities against Comalco was the first contribution towards a regular CAFCINZ (Campaign Against Foreign Control in New Zealand) column in Salient. This week a CAFCINZ member has contributed an article on Soviet expansion in the Singpore region Next week's column will feature another contributed article on foreign exploitation of fish resources. CAFCINZ will be having a meeting on Thursday July 15, 7.30pm in the Boardroom in the Union - if you are interested in fighting foreign control come along.
Soviet Bank Outdistances Us Giant
Singapore lies at a strategic point at the intersection of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The nearby Straits of Malacca and Singapore form the link between the two oceans. The British, who for a long time stationed a major naval force there, recognised the importance of Singapore's position on the world's sea lanes. Today Soviet warships bound for the Indian Ocean, and oil tankers carrying 90% of Japan's oil, travel through the nearby straits. Since the British announced their withdrawal East of Suez in
The Asian branch of the Moscow Narody bank is based in Singapore. It was set up in
The Soviets have set up a joint Soviet-Singaporean shipping company and have signed agreements giving them repair and servicing facilities for their fishing and merchant fleet vessels. Soviet ships are now visiting the port of Singapore at the rate of two a day. Their navy also visits Singapore and is reported to have gained the right of access to Singapore's main naval facility.
Soviet penetration of Singapore is spread over a wide range and as well as the above areas it is present in a number of others as well as developing cultural and scientific links.
Soviet activity is intensifying in the seas around Singapore. At the UN Law of the Sea Conference the Soviets are championing the 'right' of their warships to traverse the Straits of Singapore and Malacca unfettered in any way by the countries in whose territorial waters they lie. Soviet activity in Malaysia and Indonesia, the two major countries involved in the straits question, has been stepped up.
For example, both countries are receiving increased Soviet 'aid' for projects such as developing hydro resources. In a despicable attempt to curry favour with the Indonesian regime the Soviets have willing sold out the East Timorese people fighting Indonesian occupation.
These examples of Soviet imperialism in the Singapore region demonstrate its ability to develop its economic, military and political presence both quickly and extensively where it considers it necessary. They also demonstrate that the Soviet Union is no different from any other imperialist power in its blatant exploitation of a third world people.
The Government Audit Office, the largest auditing organisation in N.Z. offers you an interesting and challenging career in the following areas:-
In the public sector profit cannot be relied upon as a measure of efficiency. Government auditors must not only see that accounts give a true and fair view but that the organisation under audit has received value for the funds spent.
Government auditors cover Departments of State (both administrative and developmental) public corporation (N.A.C, Tourist Hotel Corporation etc), marketing boards (Dairy Board, Meat Board etc) and local authorities (City Councils, Harbour Boards, Electric Power boards, Hospital boards, Education boards etc.)
Government auditors on behalf of Parliament and the citizens of New Zealand ensure that the stated social and political purposes of these agencies are carried out with the most effective and economical use of funds allocated to them.
Like all modern auditors, Government auditors evaluate the accounting and other administrative systems in operation but not only to assess the accuracy of the accounts. Systems are evaluated with a means of assessing their adequacy in assisting towards the effective use of resources contributed by the taxpayer and ratepayer for particular stated purposes.
Government is the biggest business in N.Z. As such it has been at the forefront in the use of computers for accounting and management information. The Audit Office is heavily involved in this area and has a special computer audit group of auditors trained in E.D.P., Promising officers after initial experience in the field are eligible for training and attachment to this section for varying periods.
The N Z. Government in common with overseas trends is introducing new techniques of public sector financial management such as programme budgeting, integrated management accounting, cost effectiveness studies and cost/benefit analysis. Increasingly Government auditors are going to be involved in appraising the effectiveness of these techniques.
Branches are situated at: Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Masterton, Wellington, Nelson Greymouth, Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin and Invercargill. Staff are also located at London who periodically visit posts in Europe, and North America Staff from New Zealand carry out audits in Australia, S. E. Asia. Western Samoa, Niue and Cook Islands.
All top positions in the Audit Office are open to qualified personnel and promotion is rapid.
Some very senior policy-making and management positions are held by officers still in their thirties and forties.
Middle management positions are held by officers in their twenties and thirties.
Supervisory positions in full charge of audits are held by officers as young as 24.
Your career is developed from first appointment by on-the-job training and off-the-job courses suited to the various levels. All qualified officers are treated as professionals and as a consequence have a greater degree of autonomy and freedom than would be expected in a normal organisation of this size.
Experience in the Audit Office qualified for admission to the N.Z. Society of Accountants.
These are on standard Public Service conditions. Starting salaries are competitive with those of other professional organisations offering a future of challenging professional-level work with a social purpose and increasing financial rewards.
Interviews can be arranged through the Careers Advisory Board for 21 July when Audit office representatives visit the University. Alternatively, contact the Administration Officer, phone 724-979 for further information.
Little Feat, long acclaimed by the music press as the greatest thing to happen to rock and roll in many years, won over a Wellington audience with a display of most inventive precision rock. The two concerts were two hours late due to several delays in getting the massive load of equipment down from Auckland. The wait, however, was worth it and Little Feat delivered the goods.
On stage they play straight and hard; none of the rock-star-pissing-on-the-audience syndrome. Just good, hard, musicianship. Lowell George center stage stood there in Levis and floral shirt pulling out the type of guitar licks that have sent Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page and all other rock afficiendos into rapturous applause. He sang like he meant it, as if he personified the lyrics.
Paul Barrere effortlessly kept up the rhythm and then would change to lead while Lowell George took his turn on the rhythm. The guitar work between the two of them was inventive at all times, not once did they indulge in a lead break fight as is the tendency for many bands with two guitarists.
Bill Payne's keyboards were lush and well mixed and he displayed a variety of styles from a gothic down-south boogie rhythm to classical pieces. He managed to look all the time like a PhD student; unruffled while turning out some great runs on the boards. His lengthy solo on Tripe Face Boogie' led into two superb solos from Barrere and George.
Feat went through the whole gamut of their music. A lengthened version of 'Dixie Chicken' had the crowd up and stamping for more and the unruffled Feats did just that, pushing on into 'Cold, Cold, Cold' which George sang with real feeling.
Their music is so alive and vibrant, totally personified in Ken Gradney's animated prancing while playing the most fluid of bass lines. His thunderous bass introduction to 'Romance Dance' was greeted with enthusiastic applause and Paynes electric piano/synthesiser tripping notes soared with the whole band driving on like there was no end. Sam Claytons conga playing was so totally in tune with the funky drumming of Rich Hayward that nothing could fail.
The Last Record Album seemed to be the strength of their set really, with a fair sprinkling of songs from 'Sailing Shoes' and 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now'. 'All That You Dream' was a real high spot as everything fitted in. By now the band were sailing just like that shoe. Payne and Barrere put the vocals in on this their own song. Then their version of Allan Toussants New Orleans boogie song drove me all nostalgic.
This basically is what is so good about these boys. They can lift you, drop you and make you feel so good in the space, of two hours.
'Day or Night' sums it up all right, and they did, with such feeling, even a shade slower than it is on the album;
The mixing was great and the lyrics were right up front and the fine balance was maintained right throughout; The sign of a really great rock-n-roll band tried and true!
For those of you who missed it I really do feel sorry, as what was presented by Little Feat in the Town Hall was true rock and roll with all its many moods, brilliantly played by the funkiest band in the States.
The crowd went beserk and they just had to come on again; 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now' with its brilliant twangy guitar rifts was just what the Doctor ordered, oh and what a version! Half way through it George stops is musically the boys whip up the chant "Roll right through the night".... the crowd responded.... and one by one the band departs from stage the crowd up front singing "Roll right through the night' those up back calling for more .... but we Feats fans knew they didn't leave a song unfinished! Sure enough the band could still be heard singing that line out out back and as they drifted back on stage the crowd went up on their feet clapping and dancing; Lowell George gently walking the stage drooping his mike into the crowd while the chant of "roll on right through the night" was sung by the now frenzied Feat-o-maniacs!
God, living rock'n roll... the true moment! 'Willin' just had to follow.... and it did. Lowell George up front strumming acoustic guitar with the spot on him:
The highlight of the concert.... simply beautiful.. the applause was well deserved from a now rapt audience. "Teenage Nervous Breakdown" came as the last number, tight and the living incarnation of rock and roll it put the icing on the cake.
Our into the crisp winter air after the show and everyone was six inches off the ground.......thanks Feat!
Wellington got a taste of something special when Jean Luc Ponty with his band performed for the half full audience He came with the Mahavishnu orchestra in '74 but visited only Auckland and Christchurch. The majority of the people who attended had not heard him live.
Jazz music is 'live' music and has to be taken this way. Ponty and his band brought the best of contemporary jazz to a Wellington that has been much neglected in this area.
As a jazz ensemble, they were superb: as soloists, they were magnificent. Ponty was the grand master leading the band. He was relaxed, confident and gave a spectacular display on his multi-coloured violins. He became intimate with his audience within a short time and had them hanging on every sound that he and his equipment, which included sophisticated reverberating amplifiers and a synthesiser, could manufacture. He surely must be one of the greatest musical craftsmen playing today.
Ponty's playing reflected many of the influences that he must have incorporated over recent years. His music is a little 'classical' at times with clever contrasts in key and rhythm while at other times the strong jazz feel of Stephane Grappelli and later, John MacLaughlin, penetrates into it.
The first piece played by the band was "Is Once Enough" - also the first track off"Aurora '. Almost at once, the lead guitarist Darryl Stuermer, soloed with bite and pace. This guy is out to eat John MacLaughlin, and considering his age, probably will.
The band worked through tracks off 'Upon the Wings of Music" and "Aurora" becoming more cohesive and sharp as they went on.
Tom Fowler on bass played with rhythm and skill, allowing the rest of the band to improvise frequently. Fowler himself soloed twice at great speed on his Gibson bass - not heard often at New Zealand concerts.
Aggressive drumming was provided by Mark Claney who achieved a genuine jazz feel, but who occassionally showed too much vigour and volumn. Considering his short time in the band, his work was particularly enjoyable. He shined most in playing duos with Ponty and the others. He is also the first person I have seen playing the bass and the drums concurrently.
Alan Zavod from Australia was a disappointment and really did not seem like part of the band. I was particularly disappointed with not seeing Patrice Rushen who played keyboards on "Aurora" - she stayed in the States to study music and will tour when finished.
For me there were three highlights of a brilliant concert overall. The acoustic section of "Renaissance" and "Question Without an Answer" were delicate and beautiful, especially after several powerful pieces Ponty on acoustic violin and Stuermer playing Spanish guitar were perfect together as well as soloing skillfully.
If one piece sent the audience into raptures (and it did) it was "Fight for Life". This must have been the most incredible cadenza ever played. Ponty started by mimicking a waterfall using a multitude of effects that left the audience wondering if it was indeed a violin he was playing. Soloing for 10 minutes, he shook the foundations with foghorn-like moans, stabbed his victims with daggers of synthesised stacattos and thrilled them with lightning runs.
"Aurora" parts one and two demonstrated the excellence of the band, both combined and individually. Ponty played as a supreme virtuoso using all his incredible skills. He proved conclusively that he was as much a driving force behind the Mahavishnu Orchestra a John MacLaughlin.
Darryl Stuermer played with sting and yet combind well with the rest of the band - bringing a distinctive rock n roll feel to the music.
Ponty gave generous portions of time to the others for improvisation - he simply stood back and gently swayed to their music - violin under arm. His playing cast an aura around him as he fixed his gaze down the strings of this violin. The crowd responded well to his subtleties and musical ad libs.
When he finally went off stage - it was hard to believe the end of the concert had come - but French violinists always come back for an encore. He did, telling the audience "It is wonderful playing music for you" - and launched into a further piece. He was given a standing ovation for his trouble.
The audience were enthralled and exhilarated with the man and his music. Ponty is guaranteed a full house next time around - here's hoping.
Its cold outside and here I am home in an alcoholic haze - or am I? Maybe its just the trance Nils Lofgren has me in.
I can't fight it.....I have to admit that it is my pleasure to bring to you a challenger to Bruce Springsteens rock-punk crown; Ladies and Gentlemen may I present.... Nils Lofgren
'Cry Tough happens to hold 9 of the best rock songs my ears have had the pleasure of listening to; and let me say to you that I wasn't asked to do this review its just that the whole album is so bloody good! You've a right to know about it.
Our Nils has been around a bit now, he's trucked with Neil Young in Crazy Horse; produced average-only music with Frin and produced one solo effort simply called "Nils Lofgren". Ah yes "Nils Lofgren' pointed the way to "Cry Tough".
This is his second solo effort and from beginning to end everything gels as there isn't one bum track.
Side One starts out with the title track "Cry Tough", in which Nils sings about new British rock phenonemon Dr Feelgood, and Nils thinks they are up his alley, he really wants to dance to 'em:
"Cry Tough" is a little more complex than the other cuts on tis album and as such highlights the emphasis he has put on production this time around.
"Its not a Crime" finds Nils out front on guitar and strutting his street punk stuff in the truest fashion. His singing is very easy to listen to and this song, in particular, has a very cruisy feel to it. "Incidentally.... its over", shows just how tight he can work within the three man combo; English maniac Aynsley Dunbar (Ex-Mothers) is on drums and Wornell Jones on Bass. This is the group that backed him on the first album; the percussion lines are strong and flowing and Jones' bass has a real gut rock feel to it.
On other tracks such as "For Your Love" he is back by such notables as Al Cooper and his brother Tom Lofgren. "For Your Love", I hope you will remember is the old Yard birds classic and party standard Here Nils does a brilliant cover version; far slower and more laid back, but damn it the mans got me walking round all day humming his version to myself... it so infectious! He changes the style of the original completely and introduces an upbeat tempo in the middle with rapid snare drumming from Emil Richards very much akin to what Jay Dee Daugherty does on Patty Smiths 'Horses' album.
Side Two starts strongly with 'Share a Little'; a number that evokes strong memories of Lofgrens guitar playing on Neil Youngs 'Southern Man'. Its a very fast number which serves as a brilliant introduction to musically, the most intruiging number on the album. "Mud in Your Eye" features a string bass from Scott Ball along with strange percussive effects behind Lofgrens acoustic riffs. The changes in this piece are classic and the piano fills giving 'Mud in Your Eye" a real sixties feel, eight bar and all! Its about a boy who gets his revenge on a lady who messed around his brother;
"Can't get Closer" and "You Lit a Fire" are really very pleasant numbers with a real West Coast feel to them, Lofgrens guitar sounding more like a steel guitar........
Yet "Jail bait" says it all, as the sixties statement with the sixties intro:
An opening like that takes you back; and if released as a single it would have to be a hit, it feels right the whole way. Just give it a listen
Honestly, in a year of excellent albums. Nils Lofgrens 'Cry Tough' is special; he's not a profound artist but, he is highly talented and definitely inspired. I can't recommend this album highly enough, he deserves listening to just as Little Feat do.... if you want to know just "Cry Tough".
Bertolt Brecht's The Mother' could not be more opposite. Unashamedly propagandist, The Mother' was written in the early
To the usual Brechtian 'distancing' or 'alienation devices - slogans, overhead projection use of mime and abstract setting, George Webby has added one other. Instead of one, this production has three women playing the part of Pelagea Vlassova alternatively. This not only stops the audience from identifying too closely with the one character, but emphasises the universal qualities of women in any society.
The Mother' is a powerful piece of theatre. But Brecht's intent is to let his audience become carried away by what they see He wants them to think about it and relate it to their own lives. The audience is not to identify with the characters, but to identify with what they are doing. This production succeeded in making this important distinction.
Aspects of the play had seen a great deal of thought, and the three differing interpretations of the Mother were presented with warmth and humanity. The cast worked well together in a style which suited the collective nature of the production. This was not only a play for instruction, but a skilled professional show.
Unlike "Kennedy's Children', Brecht's play preserves its optimism even in the face of hardship and despair. Pelagea's son is shot, but she is able to put her personal feelings into perspective. She mourns certainly but she does not let her grief cloud her vision or her resolve.
The play also has an earthy humour, emphasised by the use of N.Z. sounding colloquialism. The play takes on an added significance if we realise that many of the events described by it are also paralleled to some degree in our own history; the
The Mother' has had a well deserved popularity. It is an excellent play, and people seem genuinely interested in what it has to say. At the moment political theatre in Wellington is thriving. Hopefully the trend will continue.
Kennedy's Children is a play that shows a society suffering from culture shock. Set in a New York east side bar in
If the characters are not held together by dialogue they are certainly held together by a common disillusionment and malaise. Then there is the atmosphere of the bar itself. Its run by an impassive barman who serves the drinks and keeps the tab in a manner that implies indifference and threat Its as if he's adding up a silent reckoning.
Nothing 'dramatic' happens. The characters talk and the audience perhaps wonders why it isn't being bored. But the stories are compelling and are told in a way that involves and implicates the audience with the events themselves.
The characters are hardly representative. There is Sparger, a 'cracked actor' involved with the New York underground theatre movement. Wanda is a social worker who identified so closely with the Kennedy myth she cannot see round it, even though it has been proven false. Rona is a refugee from the student protest movement and counter-culture. There is Carla, devotee of Marilynn Munro, who realises the sixties weren't all that wonderful, but who sees the seventies as the 'arsehole of the sixties'. And finally Mark, a southern boy, Vietnam War veteren who sits through the whole play reading from his war-time diary.
These monologues, punctuated by juke-box music from
We see why the protest movement failed It lacked a mass base and popular support. It was open to exploitation and misinterpretation "They're already bringing out '60s nostalgia records, for chrissake!' This is not a nostalgic or romantic play. It sets out to destroy the myth, and succeeds. Of the five, Mark is the only one with any impetus. He leaves the bar saying 'I know what I'm gonna do now.' It is the only positive action in the whole play
Although the events described have only marginal relevance to us, the attitudes of the five characters are indicative of a whole western pattern of thought. The obsession with myth and fantasy, introspection and pessimism; the need for escape from the terrible realities' of life, are all hallmarks of the western dramatic character
For some, this will not be an easy play to relate to. Others will find it an absorbing testamant to the last decade. It is a tight competent production, and some of the performances are very moving. These actors have established a mood that incites a very personal response If you are prepared to indulge a little in some anti-nostalgia, there is something in this play that should appeal Only by not making sense out of the sixties' sudden 'failure', does the play make any sense at all.
Strindberg wrote over 50 plays in the course of his mauling life, but this naturalistic piece (
In a naturalistic play, the audience 'looks in' on some real people alive in the workaday world Kate Jason Smith (designer) has the audience arranged in tiers on two sides of the stage, as if the walls have been folded back to sit on, and you are now within the Count's kitchen. Kate does not mickey mouse the stage with a lot of junk, and consequently her set does not obscure the actors.
Sherril Cooper plays Miss Julie, the Count's daughter, who tries to cross the border line between aristocracy and working class, but becomes fatally caught in no man's land. Jean the footman (John Callen) is a horrific mixture of sex and class hatred. Both Miss Julie and Jean attempt to resort to being just a couple of human beings (instead of lady and footman) but thier flirting is conducted always awkwardly from within the armour of their opposing classes, with the constant fear that the Count will suddenly call Jean on the speaking tube. The end of the play is so close to that of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" that you can't help thinking the film must be based on this play.
It is a bitter piece where Cooper and Callen convincingly portray two people in a fight to the death, two people whom Oscar Wilde would have called "closer than friends, enemies locked". It's refreshing after the usual spiritual distance you get in theatre.
Miss Julie is on at Downstage for six nights only, at 8.15pm., July 19 - 24. It takes 90 minutes, $1.50 and I'd walk a long way to see it.
After hearing a substantial body of Baroque works, perpetrated by some Wellington musicians, in a somewhat heavy-handed romantic, emotive style, it was tremendously refreshing to hear a different stylistic approach made manifest by the Baroque Players, with much vigour and obvious pleasure on Wednesday night.
Peter Walls's approach to Baroque Music seems to be a realisation of the intrinsic emotive force which is present in the music itself: the rhythmic changes which occur within single movements, the sublety of phrasing, and a tightness and control to a more popular style which tends to regard the notes on the page as being rather uninteresting in themselves, and requiring the artifice of a subjective emotional response more in keeping with the romantic approach to music.
The Baroque Players seem totally at home in their rendition of the music and presented a convincing and consistent evening of Baroque music.
This was certainly the case in what was, for me, the highlight of the evening. The Corelli Concerto Grosso (Op. 6, no. 12) achieved marked changes of mood from movement to movement, with the delicate interwoven melodies of the 1st movement contrasted by a knife-edged 2nd movement which they took at a spectacular tempo. And then the 3rd movement was suddenly a gently pulsing heart-beat which seemed to appear from nowhere. It was a very controlled performance, with some very positive, driving violin playing from Nik Brown, and it seemed to cover a wide range of the different stylistic traits and fit them together absolutely convincingly.
Another case where the music's inherent forces spoke for themselves was in the first movement of the Telemann Concerto for 3 Violins. Rhythmic accuracy on the part of the players (and Telemann's orchestration) was the main reason for its musical sense, but this was reinforced by the changing solo violins' tones, from the strident dotted rhythms to the more sensitive lilting triplet rhythms.
The Back D Minor Concerto for 2 Violins was easily the most emotionally demanding work on the programme, if only because nearly every member of the audience would have had his own expectations of the piece (as well as probably mentally playing his favourite recording of it). The two outer movements suffered from occasional rhythmic uncertainty where orchestra and soloists (Ann MacMillan and Katherine Harris) on a couple of occasions almost left one another behind. But what was impressive about the performance was the meticulous detail paid to phrasing, and the articulation of notes, especially in the 2nd movement, where the accuracy was such that the 2 violins often sounded as one instrument (the ideal state). Similarly, there were other moments of tremendous rapport between the soloists and orchestra, which gave a general feeling of a totally integrated string sound.
In this, Peter Walls seemed to realise an important ideal in Baroque Concerto playing, which does not set the soloist aside from what is usually treated as the accompaniment in the orchestra, but rather regards the two as working completely together (it's just that one has a more demanding part to play than the other). I expect that this integration of sound came off so well in the concert largely because Peter Walls draws his soloists from within the group in all the pieces, and thus there is no particular differentiation of technical standard and style between soloist and orchestra.
On the whole there was fine, full-bodied string tone, and a brightness of approach and attack which made the concert really invigorating for the listener. The only problem which seemed to occur was in settling into the rhythm and tempo of some of the quick movements in the first half of the programme, although this improved as the players adjusted to the concert situation.
By way of a change from total string sound, Pam Gray, as Venus, sang a Purcell aria with the orchestra, as an encore. She was a coy and endearing Venus (though I suspect that had something to do with the very high range of the song), and would have had the swains and nymphs flocking to her, if it were all real!
This is the first formal concert given by the Baroque Players under the direction of Peter Walls, and the present standard promises some superb playing in later concerts Improvement is naturally forthcoming from a group like this, as they are young (there are 12 in the group altogether of which half are students), and none of them has reached his peak, musically, as yet.
What was also gratifying about this concert was that, despite the stupid shortsightedness of Musoc for putting the concert on the same night as a Symphony Orchestra Concert, the Music Room was packed, with almost 60 people in the audience. And for those who didn't hear the Baroque Players this time round, they are repeating the same programme on Sunday, July 18th, in Old St. Paul's.
A filmed record of Joe Cocker's
This film is a fine example of the cinema-verite style, in which we see the characters on stage and on the road as they make their tour.
Joe Cockers genius is exploited to the full and the same goes for Leon Russell who sometimes, not unexpectedly, outshines the number one star. Russell is the composer arranger, guitarist pianist of the group.
A beautiful slice of
Dr Frankenstein is a young clean Ail-American good-guy brain surgeon who makes a monster and takes it to a medical convention dressed in white tie and tails.
This is Mel Brooks' most hilarious film - even funnier than his Blazing Saddles.
The young doctor who likes his name pronounced Fron-ken-shleen, so that he is not confused with his grandfather is assisted by a hunchback called Igor played by Marty Feldman.
Gene Hackman also makes an appearance as an blindman who befriends the monster in one of the films most priceless sequences.
Dr Frankenstein is played by Gene Wilder and the monster by Peter Boyle.
"Can't you ground someone who's crazy?"
"Oh, sure, I have to. There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone whose crazy."
"Then why don't you ground me? I'm crazy. Ask Clevinger."
"Clevinger? Where is Clevinger? You find Clevinger and I'll ask him."
"Then ask any of the others. They'll tell you how crazy I am."
"They're crazy".
"Then why don't you ground them?"
"Why don't they ask me to ground them?"
"Because they're crazy that's why."
"Of course they're crazy. I just told you they're crazy didn't I? And you can't let crazy people decide whether you're crazy or not can you?"
"Is Orr crazy?"
"He sure is".
"Can you ground him?"
"I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule."
"Then why doesn't he ask you to?"
"Because he's crazy. He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions... Sure I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to"
"And then you can ground him?"
"No then I can't ground him."
"You mean there's a catch?"
"Sure there's a catch. Catch 22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't' really crazy."
This film by Perry Henzell was described by Time: "Fast, tough and sinuous with a score of Jamaican reggae that jauntily accentuates its vigour; this saga of a small-time pot pusher and pop star is a kind of Caribbean "Threepenny Opera.'" And U.S. Nation said: "Deeply appealing.. also a disturbing study of a post-colonial society in ruins."
A gently ironic tale of Jewish immigrants in New York in the Joan Micklin Silver. "An unconditionally happy achievement.....The cast is superlative and Carol Kane is extraordinary." New York Times. "Hester Street's abundant humour, sex appeal and simple humanity are universal." - Playboy. "A beautifully detailed film of charm and subjstance. A page from the album of our past."
Director Alain (La Salamander) Tanner's films have always been on the cutting edge between social problems and sexual ones. This new film - his first in colour - is no exception. An extra-marital affair between an engineer and an emigrant waitress (a stunning performance by Olimpia Carlisi) founders because physical obsessions are powerless against social differences. "Coolly intelligent and subtle." - Time Magazine. "One of the best films about the nature of passionate love." New Yorker.
Rhodes Scholarships
Application forms and information concerning Rhodes Scholarships for this year are available from the Enquiries Counter, Robert Stout Building.
For the first time, it is expected that femals candidates will be eligible for selection although this decision has yet to be finalised. Women students are therefore invited to make application
Applications close on 2 August.
The Tigers Bones by Ted Hughes
Director - Syd Bird. Cast required: 15
At The Activities Room Third Floor, 1pm and 7.30pm Tuesday 13th.
Contact No. 757 170. Scripts available Studass Office Season: Last week of Term.
Peter Franks seems to have rather missed the point of my comments in my SRC report (Salient No. 13).
First, as to our "unjust and inequitable" education system. I agree with Mr Renwick and Mr Franks that there are injustices and inequalities in the system - no one would seriously claim otherwise. But I cannot see how such generalisations can be relevant in a discussion of student bursaries. Mr Franks seems to think I go along with government policy on bursaries - I don't, and I agree with most of the points he made at the meeting and in his letter concerning the students' case.
However, I dispute the effectiveness of his methods. If students wanted to make their point about bursaries, I don't think the
Much more effective could be John Blincoe's call for all students to march on Parliament in protest about bursaries. I would fully support such a move, but I was not prepared to go down to Parliament with a hotch-potch of dissatisfied groups, many of which I had no sympathy with at all.
If students at Vic feel strongly about the faults in our education system they should take the time to present a full written report on the matter. This could be ratified by the SRC and presented to the government: much more effective than isolated attacks on the system.
I hope Mr Franks can now see that my criticisms lie mainly in the effectiveness of his approach, and that I am as keen as he is to see the faults ironed out of our education system
P.S. Is it possible that so many people find Harold Hedd amusing? Still, I suppose he really is heavy, isn't he? You know, like a lot of students, really heavy man!
A while ago I wrote an article for 'Salient' on sexist bias in the press. It didn't mention 'Salient' itself, but now that irony makes me furious. Fine for male liberals (though they'd like to identify themselves otherwise) to print an "abstract" article dealing with those evil daily papers "out there"; another issue entirely to examine the appallingly sexist nature of some of "Salient's" own reporting. Example of cock-obsessed, ignorant male burbling: 'The Silent Majority (A Muldoon -knocking column)".
The writer (who sensibly doesn't give HIS name) reveals his adolescent macho preoccupations with nudge, nudge references to "you know what', "a kick in the balls", etc, etc.
Much more disgusting is... "I'd be proud to think my MP had a bit on the side, a mistress being the same as a ministerial car. Performance in the House could be enhanced by a good ride [sic(k)] before arriving for debates." And "Mr Muldoon is married and returns to Tammy, his wife (not his pussy)....." Oh, I know, sweetie, it's all in jest so of course it's Ok. By the way, heard any good nigger jokes lately? Oops! Oh sorry!
Our naive little reporter doesn't realise how similar in political attitude he is to our beloved leader - their anti-woman prejudice is identical!
I would like to set straight some of the more glaring inaccuracies in Bernard Randalls' account of the part of one out of half a dozen conference functions yet purport to state the whole Conference was a dismal failure? Most strange indeed.
For the record, the Conference was a very credible success; e.g. over sixty students attended the Friday night Stein, fifty-five staff and students attended the Seminar on Saturday morning (the small number at the Seminar may not be entirely unrelated to the success of the Stein) and a mere 110+ attended the main function on Saturday night. There were seven delagates from Otago Law Faculty, not one Mr Randall claimed. It was regrettable that the Conference was held on the eve of Canterbury Law Students mid year exams, quite an oversight. However I would like to note that the VUW Law Faculty Club undertook an extremely short notice to hold the Conference, which was originally Scheduled for the May holidays at Otago. As one of the organisers of the Conference and a members of the 'reactionary" VUW Law Faculty Club, this letter may appear a case of sour grapes. I hope not. But I do object to Mr Randall using the pages of Salient to grind a personal axe; I strongly suspect that Mr Randall used the medium of obstensibly (mis) reporting the Conference to mount a bitter attack against certain members of the VUW Law Faculty Club.
In reply to S Romijn's letter in Salient
If he had looked carefully at the breakdown of $30.50 students' association fee he would have seen that a total of $600 is allotted to donations and $5000 to Cultural Affairs (which includes clubs - one of which is the Women's Choice Club).
The motion as Passed at S.R.C. that it be recommended that $50 be Donated to the club in support of the Abortion Rally at the opening of Parliament. This was a specific donation for this purpose alone, not for the Women's Choice Club to spend on anything needed for the running of the club (This is what grants from Cultural Affairs funds are for - therefore, if you belong to the motorcycle, car or any other similar club you are getting your money's worth, i.e the fraction of your Stud. Ass. fee that went to Cultural Affairs). Don't complain if you haven't joined a club or aren't using the facilities you are paying for.
The $50 has been passed directly to the Abortion Rally Committee to help pay expenses for organising and advertising the successful rally. The rally is the beginning of a campaign to change the abortion laws which are seriously affecting the lives of women with unwanted pregnancies and therefore, is directly involved in offering social aid to women. Thus, as the Women's Choice Club was involved with the rally, and as female students can just as easily become pregnant as any other woman, the issue involves both the club and a large proportion of this university. Not forgetting also that Abortion Law Repeal is a policy of the Students' Association.
The worthless dart paper mentioned attracted more than 600 women to march on Parliament and gained us coverage in all forms of the media was our intention.
I have not seen any complaints about other meetings and marches on that day that cost the country/tax payer countless thousands/or millions of dollars in work hours lost. But then I guess this doesn't worry you as you use the tax-payers money to live off too.
Just because this $50 donation does not benefit you directly is no reason to have it rejected. If your girlfriend needed an abortion would you still think it was money wasted if it had helped make this or the easy obtaining of contraceptives possible?
I was delighted to read a letter from Oolra Crum in last week's Salient denigrating my review at the Rolling Stones' album "Black 'n' Blue". It clearly showed that rugged, creative writing in indeed in healthy form even though this was at the expense of any credibility and substance. This disappointed me as I had hoped for a more deftly argued critique but there you go.
Personally, I prefer invective to be more delicately phrased, a rhyme scheme with a lyrical dash to it, a subtle use of Shakespearian asides, or a dazzling display at Lester Bangs' type wit would have given the letter that added bounce and made a substantial difference.
It is difficult to say anything constructive about Crum's letter other than it was rather a silly billy effort and factually incorrect; opiniated drivel no less. I would, however, take pains to point out that Salient has ample provision for printing criticisms of reviews on its music page, so take the break big Fella, and write something along better lines.
After reading all the letters supporting the Harold Hedd cartoons I thought I'd write and add to the crap.
I think Harold Hedd is mildly amusing, as are the other cartoons you print, and I am not offended by sex/dope/violence, but I don't like the degrading way the female sex is depicted submissive only ever seen being crewed by our hero Harold. It doesn't look much like a two - way operation to me. I would love to do my own version of this cartoon but unfortunately my artistic abilities are not quite up to standard.
If you knew how much work it takes to publish a 32-page Salient, you wouldn't make that Last comment. But thanks for your comments on Harold Hedd. It's very easy to label something as sexist - it's much more difficult to explain why it is so. - Ed
I was surprised and dismayed to read DSFC's criticism of Jack Shallcrass in Salient's 5 July issue. They obviously have not thought of why they are at university or for that matter why they are taking Education.
The lecturer is not there to give you all the answers in the typical teacher-blackboard pupil style of the majority of secondary school teachers but to make you think - something DSFC find unacceptable.
Jack Shallcrass has, in my opinion, one of the best lecturing styles I've come across while being at Vic - it's easy to listen to and even if you don't agree with what he says it makes you react.
If you want to pass your exams I suggest you listen to what he says and think about it instead of relying as usual on the lecturer to pass all your exams for you - you could even try making an effort by reading a few books on the subjects involved.
With your views DSFC you should at least be completely satisfied with the way in which the lecturer conducts the Educ 112 course - a classic case of non-education. The subject may have some relevance - that's if you can stay awake long enough to find out what it's all about.
Before you take education any further with your limited perception, and as potential teachers of the future (which you may be hoping to be unless you're taking Education as an 'easy' subject) you should give it away now before your conservatism ruins any chances of a radical change in NZ's education system.
NZ needs teachers who can see the limitations of an exam-oriented system.
If your only consideration is to pass exams stick to English or German which you can get out of a book or out of your lecturer and go overseas as an interpreter.
New Zealand doesn't need you - there's enough here to save with the increasing greed for 'progress' and nuclear power - without us having to save our children's minds from apathy.
It's people like DSFC (Salient 5/6) who wrote about Educ 111 and Jack Shallcrass, who make me realise I'm not the only thick guy around.
The first sentence accuses Shallcrass of lecturing on "irrelevant material". I do not find discussion of the relationship between the individual and common good in education with comparitive reference to the Soviet and American systems, irrelevant. This line about "better results" is laughable. In case DSFC et al didn't know, it's pretty difficult to fail Educ 111, but this statement has a much broader pertinance for the University as a whole: are you here to pass exams like DSFC, or do you actually want to broaden your mind. DSFC is probably scared stiff of (or maybe bored by) the questions Shallcrass is getting at - why are there virtually no Maoris at our University? what to do about increasing elitism in our system? etc. Irrelevant???
Shallcrass discussed Kohlberg's notion of pre-conventional thinkers (children), conventional thinkers (those who do the "acceptable" things and don't question them) and post-conventional thinkers (who perceive that some existing forms need change and work towards this). I think DSFC missed the point.
I really had to laugh when I read Felicity Sryth and co's letter on "lucrative lazy students". They may be okay but while they're playing their steroes and riding round on their motorbikes perhaps they could spare a thought for:
We're not asking Muldoon for an indiscriminate price increase but an increase lied to a realistic student price index. We feel that unless bursaries are maintained at levels where everyone can support themselves at University, regardless of their economic position then education becomes merely the domain of the wealthy,
Letters can be handed in at the letterbox just inside the Salient office or handed in to the editor personally. However if you wish to pay 8c postage then send your letters to P O Box 1347, Wellington. Letters should be double spaced and on one side of the paper only.
Re Rob Rabel's letter Salient
Mr Rabel in his last letter seemed to think I have no regard for freedom of speech but I'm afraid he hastily reached this conclusion without taking sufficient note of the tone of my letter (Salient
My objection to Mr Isaac's articulation of N.Z. ills was not in his legal right of expression but in his moral right as a guest in this country. It is only common courtesy not to condemn his hosts with such sweeping statments. His next point that I resorted to "argumentum ad hominem" is probably justified but I regarded Mr Isaac's editorial as a personal attack on my countrymen, as if he had said "You New Zealanders are all racists". I sought to defend my country from an unjustified attack. The editorial itself did not deserve a comprehensive rebuttal since it advanced no facts to refute.
Mr Rabel finds it difficult to "reconcile arrogance with being oppressed". I am not so shortsighted. There are many groups and individuals who deserve the description of the "arrogant oppressed" (e.g. Black Power, Militant Unionists etc). II Mr Rabel thinks all oppressed people are meek and humble he does them an injustice. The deep rooted prejudice at which Rob writes is evidenced in "talk hack shows, letters to the editor, public bar conversations and even graffitti." But is this real racism? If so, it is only generalised racism and not specific. The average Kiwi may complain about Polynesian violence or Pommy Trade Unionists, but does he refuse to talk or drink with a person not of his race. I have seldom seen it. Being of Irish origin I could strongly object to being called a Mick or suffering the many Irish jokes that are told. I don't. The people who call this type of thing racism are oversensitive racial hypocondriacs who are looking for some bandwagon to jump on. We have to recognise our differences and when these are emphasised the trendies should not jump up and down screaming racism.
Mr Rabel did not identify the M.P. that advocated a system of apartheid for New Zealand. Does "trumpeted the virtues of racial separatism" answer my question? I think not. My final suggestion that Mr Isaac's should leave if he was not satisfied is quite reasonable, He is not a Citizen and can return to his own country. His continued stay indicates that NZ may not be one of the most racist countries in the world as he so forthrightly suggests. My main point was that this was an unfair description of NZ and Mr Rabel has failed to answer this. I stand by my objection to Mr Isaac's editorial and pray that Mr Rabel notes its unfairness.
If a fifty-year-old person (with one leg and flat broke) whose aging parents still lived in Wellington, wished to attend university, that person would receive $13 per week. It would be as much a joke for that person as it is for the majority of Vic students now.
I doubt if every student comes from a household that is suitable to study in. I doubt if every student comes from a household where they don't have to pay rent. I doubt if every student actually receives money from their parents, to keep going without having to work during the academic year.
At least 60% of Vic Students are on only $13 per week. Even at home, that's just like something you'd throw the cat.
What about out-of-town students? They get $24 per week, but to live at Everton Hall, Vic House, or Weir House, puts you back $27 per week. You're in the red before you even start.
This is the position now, and Gandar has said there'll be no adjustments till
Sryth, Parrs, and Barlow (last week's letter writers) are obviously tight-arsed babies who were born with hollow eye-sockets. Daddy will buy their tennis racquets, and one day they'll lie back and tell how they became self-made factory-owners because they worked so hard.
Students are misrepresented and insulted by their letter.
I wish to educate the group of "worried students". Those students need accurate information to clear up their bias.
I can, therefore, just as easily conclude that the kiwi society is populated by untidy, dirty, and violent kiwis. But I do not jump to that sort of conclusion for I know that my experience in N.Z. is limited. And to base one's conclusion on one's narrow experience would be plain stupidity. The conclusion reached is bound to be fallacious and misleading. Just imagine that group of jokers who stayed in Malaysia for only a week and starts to claim that they can peak with authority on the Malaysian ways of life.
Remember boys 'he who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool.' So, common sense dictates that all the Malaysians should shun and ignore those fools, i.e.. the group of 'worried students'.
I would not lend any credence at all to the blatantly racist and bigoted comments of "Worried Students" re the Malaysian High Commission Objection in the Salient of
One only has to visit Kiwi student flats to discover (and probably die of), the reeking stenches of unwashed bodies, unwashed jeans and the smell of beer, and be met with unsightly crates of empty beer bottles. Slums and sub-standard houses in the central Wellington area, especially in Newtown and Mr Victoria, speak for the standard of living in New Zealand. The pubs are filled with drunkards alcoholics, prostitutes and queers (Bistro Bar). Graffiti is earnestly written on toilet walls (VUW Library) and public buildings (Beehive Building).
Tramps and homeless old men sleep under the stars in Pigeon Park, the Public Library and the Basin Reserve and wander aimlessly on the streets. Gangs of marauding Black Power youngsters terrorize the streets. Where is the beautiful picture of New Zealand as Kiwis are prone to point out to others?
The daily papers abound with news of demonstrations for higher pay, abortion on demand, Maori land marches etc. I don't fancy a liking for New Zealand food with such weird names as "Hot-dogs" (whatever that means) or sausages and mince-meat - rotting and decaying meat being recycled for human consumption.
I hope Worried Students would grow up beyond their narrow world of prejudices and stereo-typed views. Know thyselves better before you criticise others.
I was surprised that you found it necessary to devote so much space to "Carson Screwed".
It seems to me that an ex-president of N.Z.U.S.A. hasn't realised he's no longer boss and that Don Canon thought that he could express some opinions by himself.
If Carson wasn't given any reports until it was too late to write a reply, let alone send it to people outside Wellington, then that is shameful behaviour from a spineless president, John Blincoe.
Carson's involvement in the issues of East Timor and nuclear warships has taken N.Z.U.S.A. out of the elite Shaw Malaysian obsession.
I wish to voice my dissaproval of the quality and cost of the shit sold in the cafe
Due to the lack of chicken I asked for 2 pieces of fish with my chips. I was appalled at the price: 75 cents!! Actually ¾ of my dwindling bursary dollar. (Not all of the increase can be blamed on Rob). Having sufficiently recovered from the shock of the price, I wandered over to the queue (knowing only part of the reason why it was so short).
I was given my fish (If I could be excused for calling them that), small, wee things they were. On top of that the usually passable chips were added. However, this time the chips left a lot to be desired (and I mean a lot; about ¾ of a bagful in fact).
Judging by the quality of the fish I would Say that the New Zealand leather manufacturers were doing a roaring trade in the cafe.
After this totally nauseating meal, I swore (more than usual) to withdraw my patronage, and protest. To this end may I enter a plea of mercy to the cafe manager; to stop treating us like the captive custom he thinks we are, and to increase the quality of the food served. (Note that being a hopeful person I use the word foot this time).
The residents of Weir House wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused by their inaccuracy.
We are sorry that you caught Weir House on what was (unfortunately) a very bad day The management suggests you try our specialty rotten pears. They are a connoisseur's dream and decidedly superior to mere apples. The dull ponk as they connect and the resulting splat is sheer poetry.
The management has noted your complaint and assures you that it will not happen again. Henceforth pears only will be served on Thursdays - the main course has an E.T.A. of 9pm. We hope that this arrangement is suibable.
Serviettes will be supplied hall an hour before the main course. These paper napkins will be placed in convenient places on the footpath leading up to Kelburn Park. Feel tree to pick one up as they are there for your convenience.
To obtain Soup du jour' you would be best advised to come up to the concrete walkway immediately in front of the House (Turn left off the Everton - Kelburn Park track - you can't miss it). The garcon's are a little bit slow with the soup however, prompt service is ensured by yelling out:
"C floor wankers!!"
The soup is contained in a bucket (capable of generous servings) that is at the permanent ready. It is quite a simple task to deliver the soup from C-floor down to the floor, so do not hesitate to make your need known.
Mr Anton, I am sure that by now you are aware of the comprehensive services that Weir House avails to passers by. Your experience was unfortunate insofar as you received only a entree to the vast services possible.
Your complaint has been duly noted and such an inept and (to coin a phrase) shabby incident will not occur again. We are there to provide such services so do not hesitate to ask. Cable car patrons do have preference as we have a standing arrangement with the WCC.
Yours of the first instance (but hoping there will be a second and a third, and a fourth and a fifth ....
The Manager of Weir Takeaways.
Our motto :
"Weir there to help you" and sometimes when we're pissed: "Eat more! Root more! Drink more piss!"
P.S. Plans for a floor show are underway. Entertainment will be a variation on the theme of:
Concerning the review in Salient Vol.39 Number 19,
The intellectual inadaquacy of the reviewer amazes us. He is clearly devoid of the ability to think and express himself coherently. Although this is standard toilet paper material the writer has made a pitiful attempt to be original, but failed miserably.
The reviewer is unknown to us, but we have been informed by a mutual friend that he is deaf. This condition must surely retard his ability as a critic. The expository skill evidenced in this article has lead many co-readers known to us, to suggest Mr Bowden would have a promising future as editor to a school magazine (in this regard he is only surpassed by Salient's present editor).
One is left to the conclusion that the psuedo reviewer must be starting a lucrative second hand trade on records freely gained.
p. s. We would be appreciative if Salient would be printed on a softer texture of paper.