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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 18, July 26, 1976.
Letters
Letters
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 PO Box 1347, Wellington. Letters should be double spaced and on one side of the paper only.
Good Case for Bursaries
Dear Sir,
I know, and you know, that we are a good case for our bursaries, but publishing rubbish like that tear-jerker about Kathie Rose - "Case Study of a Poor Student" just weakens our case. Can't you think of a better story than descending to the ridiculous
| 1) | Forgive me if my logic fails me, but to get Special Admission you've got to be over 21 - therefore Kathic Rose has had at least a couple of years to earn a bit and save towards coming to varsity. Personally, if my finances were so far up the shit that I couldn't afford $10.00 Special Admission fee, then I would consider it reasonable to defer varsity for another year. |
| 2) | Having established a bad case of poverty as evidence by the singular lack of $10.00, and personal debts to friends, no raincoat etc, it should be obvious to those with even the most limited faculties that a part-time job would be necessary, so embarking upon a full-time varsity course was near-sighted and irrational. |
| 3) | As for that sickening story about the Maori Education Foundation "I felt there were more needy cases than me" - if her thinking is so warped and witless as not to see herself as needy after all that's just been said then either a) she's not got adequate brain power to handle varsity, b) What's more likely she tried for a M.E.F. grant and was turned down on grounds of intellectual incapacity or otherwise, or else she knows they wouldn't throw their money away on such a deadhead. |
| 4) | Quote "Because I work 30 hours a week I get more than I would if I was on a full bursary, - so I can't see how even those students manage". |
- how very telling! On one hand she tells us how hard up she is - can't buy books etc, then confesses to earning more than the full
I agree S.T.B. is pitiful, I'm having a struggle myself an $24.00 a week, but I did have the gumption to get a job in the summer, without much trouble - not highly paid as I'm a girl but I saved hard and could pay my own fees etc as I've used up my fees bursary.
To tell a personal hard luck story I lost my bursary years ago, and instead of trying to bludge off friends, family, state etc, I quit varsity, worked like hell for a couple of years, and saved enough to support myself entirely while I won back my bursary. With no help whatsoever from my family, who live in another city. So surely Salient could've dug up a better hard-luck story than Kathie Rose's, which only damages our cause as being too ridiculous to credit.
- No Bludger
Enjoy Life - Not Bursaries
Dear Editor,
Why don't people such as yourself and John Blincoe pull your heads in over the bursary question. Student's don't need you to set yourselves up as quasi-intellectual spokesmen silling in your ivory towers, telling them times are hard as you both did last week (Salient 12/7/76). You are little more than two examples of radical trendies trying to create issues because there are not enough around to harp about since the tour went ahead. Most students these days adopt (he attitude that they must help New Zealand out of the financial mess the last Labour Government created and are prepared to do the best they can with their available resources. For God sake men Men moaning smile, for once, be happy and enjoy life.
Yours in happiness,
John A. Mcllwaine.
Reply to International Club
Dear Sir,
May I put the following completely hypothetical situation to the members of the International Club.
Consider yourself on an aircraft flying between two distant cities. Suddenly about halfway between the two, the aircraft is hijacked by a group of unknown Middle Eastern people. The aircraft is forced to fly to an unknown destination, and upon arrival at this country, lets call it Uganda, the Head of State welcomes the hijackers, who are not citizens of that country (Uganda), as virtual national heroes. The hostages, including yourself are guarded by members of the army while the hijackers are able to wash, eat and rest. You see no hope of release as the general rumour is that Uganda keeps the aircraft and the hijackers do what they want to the hostages (that includes you). Suddenly, an unknown force arrives, kills all the hijackers, you realise it is from your own country, and suddenly you are saved.
How would you feel?
Yours,
D. Heath.
Applecrumb Brilliance
To the Knights, wights and blights of Weir Mouse, Awsome and respected lords,
Accept my mumble apologies for so crassly insulting you. And in token of my heartfelt esteem, please accept the following as contributions to your '[unclear: c] floor' show. A light breakfast, moderate lunch and hearty dinner have been catered for.
Arise, ye jerkers from your fumble,
Arise, ye denizens of Weir
Each to your own bed now must stumble
Or else your mates will call you queer.
Eat more, root more, sink more piss
Is the Weir House dream of bliss
Belly, balls and bladder bulging
Still they cannot stop indulging
Most of them can stand the strain
There's lots a room around the brain.
The main course is dedicated to Friday night balcony strutters.
If you ever come to Wellington, New Zealand,
And out your James Cook window pause to stare
You might ask a passing flunkey "What's that museum?"
It's a monument to pricks, they call it Weir.
The blokes up there are proud of their subculture
"Well sink a keg while fucking Germaine Greer,
We're tough as six inch nails and just as sharp mate,
And poofter gear we swear to never wear."
But all they do is dream about their" Thugby,
The pursuit of bladders bloated out with beer,
They'll precisely place the touring All Black team, but
Soweto is a town but God knows where.
If you're a Scotsman dinna fash yoursel, man
The windy city's chilled your hairs pair,
The cold has shrunk your one and only member,
You may think you're small but they are wee-er.
And I bid good-bye to all the Knights of Chesternong at twilight Castle.
Salient Makes Another Mistake
In paragraph 2 of my review of the Baroque Players Concert in the previous week's Salient, there was a line or two committed in the typesetting which distorted the meaning (and the grammatical sense) of the sentence.
"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 subtlety of phrasing, and a tightness and control of overall rhythm and dynamics. This is in contrast to a more popular style which tends to regard the notes on the page as being rather uninteresting...."
The bit about the contrast was important, as my comments about "the popular style" were not very complimentary, and not meant to be direct to the Baroque Players, which is the way it read in last week's issue. The last thing I wanted was to run down a group as good as they are.
Kathleen Culliford.
p. s. the final letter of J.S. Bach's name is an H, not a K!
I'm Not Complaining!
Dear Sir,
I am bewildered why people must always refute the quality and quantity of the food in the cafe. It is an unprecedented gourmet's delight, the staff are congenial, the atmosphere is convival, and I have never had occasion to complain about any aspect of the service.
Andrews.
Stolen Property Wanted Back
Would the prick who took my purse and book from the Info. Science Dept on the afternoon of Thursday 15 July please return my book, key and library card. As I presume you would rather remain anonymous, would you please send them or suggest some other way. My address is on the library card.
Salughtering the Person
Dear Edit person,
I got some time off from my foreperson on the Von Zedlitz site today, so I ceased my personual labour, and came to the SRC with my person friend. A certain woperson got up, speaking on behalf of wopersons in general, in support of a motion to change the world "chairperson" to "chairman" on the grounds of its being too unperson a gable. Eric Freed person agreed, saying that since 1976, he'd never been able to get his name on the door.
Another motion was one of censure against a member, accused of person slaughter, a crime that persony people see as the bane of person kind. This person had, in a most inhuperson personner, set his/her/its dog, a dober person pinscher on the post person, and persongled one of his/her/its arms. Mot ungentlepersonly of him/her/it.
But, to get back to the first motion, it is for all New Zealanders and New Zealandresses, a real step forward. It is no load of old personure, as some think.
Yours,
R.S.V. Plate.
Waiting for a Superpower War
Dear Sir,
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I have viewed with concern the recent rise of the Russian menace and the threat to our way of lite. I am concerned because that menace appeared so suddenly, coinciding as it has with the ascendency of Muldoon and Fraser and a strong challenge to Ford from Reagan in the States. Why? I ask myself, has wicked old Russia assumed a threat of such proportions, almost akin to that of the '50s? I find it difficult to believe that the old villain is any more of a danger to our security than she ever was. Have we, and our leaders, since the Berlin Wall really been sleeping on a powder-keg, blissfully unaware of the mounting danger to our peace, freedom democracy etc Western style - or does the answer lie elsewhere?
A possible answer revealed itself when I recalled an American publication, 'Report from Iron Mountain', published in the U.S.A. in 1967, introduced by L.C. Lewin but the source bieng anonymous. It caused an enormous stir at the time only to be unheard of by the 1970s - 'The Pentagon Papers' will no doubt suffer a similar fate. The book purports to be the findings of a committee set up by the U.S. Government to investigate the possible effects of world peace i.e. the total absence of war, upon U.S. society. The U.S. Government quickly denied knowledge of any such committee which was understandable since the book slates that war plays an essential part in U.S. society, and the alternative, as alternative there would have to be if society were not to fall apart, would be so much more unpleasant. What right thinking, peace loving government would admit to even considering such a report?
| a) |
A society is only ever truly united when it faces a threat from without. We've been a bit short of enemies lately, what with long detente with Russia and almost embarrassingly good relations with China. That old bogey. Communism, a Godsend to Capitalism in providing a threat to fight against, has, over the years, lost its appeal as an enemy and needs a revival. We've had no wars since Vietnam, stirring stuff for a while but had limited appeal and lost its magic long before it finally came to an end. Communism is O.K. but difficult to come to grips with on its own what we need is something more concrete. China's out of the question at the moment for various reasons, but our old enemy Russia, big, power full, well armed and obviously imperialistic, fits the bill beautifully - so long as it doesn't get too serious of course. I should at this point draw attention to the relative lack of reaction from Russia, or so it would appear, to the accusations pouring in from the West - not to mention China. Could it be that another cold war with the U.S. is just what the Soviet heads of state need to reignite the fire of the 'revolutionary spirit' that has perhaps been flagging of late? For similar reasons China might welcome an intensification of feelings amongst Chinese against their neighbour. Indeed the cynic may well wonder whether the three of them, Russia, America and China, with there respective dependents, didn't jack the whole thing up between them since they all stand to gain from the situation - disregarding, of course, the man in the street. A bit far fetched, you may say, but the Kiwis were never so united as when they were fighting the forces of the Nazis and the Japanese. Not to mention being fully employed physically and mentally with little time to consider other problems. |
| b) |
War, or even the threat of war, is good for the economy, the Capitalist economy, at least. For reasons obvious to the economist, armament production is far more lucrative than building houses for the homeless or schools for their kids - a particularly salient point to consider when in the throes of a recession. Please note the National governments cuts in various areas of public spending, the one notable exception, perhaps, being the armed services who've been promised an increase in their allowance. |
| c) |
The greater the perceived threat from outside the less your 'man in the street' is likely to take much notice of what is, or is not, going on at home. Recent years in Western countries have been marked by strong pressure from groups in moral and social areas such as education, women's liberation, race relations, homosexual law reform - to name a few. The presence of an aggressor lends to effectively divert attention from these internal and continuing problems which our leaders often prefer to ignore. |
The constant threat of war could be seen to be the ideal stale since actual, full-scale wars such as WW 11 tend to upset the status quo and often in a way quite unpremeditated by those who allow or encourage them to happen. The relatively localised wars that were witnessed periodically since WW 11 such as Korea and, more recently, Vietnam, have helped provide the necessary economic stimulus, social unity and diversion without too much threat to the status quo - though things were never quite the same afterwards, 'Little wars', then, may be seen as a workable proposition. The problem is that they sometimes can get out of hand but then nothing's perfect.
Yours faithfully,
Barney Quaddel;