One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the sheer childishness displayed by so many of my fellow Kiwis. The two things of the title of this post? Two examples:
Take a look at this description of the recent protests outside the Labour Party conference. Now, I’ve met a lot of Kiwi activists, I’ve seen a lot of protesters in action, I’ve been one of them on many an occasion, and this description strikes me as being pretty fair (although I can’t be sure, of course). Sure, the childishness is not limited to the protests, but it would seem that it was mostly protesters who needed timeout, or whatever the latest punishment fad is these days. Having taken part in many protests in New Zealand, I can confirm that 9 times out of 10, the police are restrained and even respectful.
But that’s what really pisses me off about modern Western “leftists” (scare quotes because most of them wouldn’t recognise genuine left wing politics even if the world’s best political science professor explained it to them in terms a three year old could understand): They’ve got their heads stuck so far up their own self-righteous arses they wouldn’t know real oppression or an actual abuse of human rights even if it happened to them. That’s enough abusing that particular sentence pattern.
Secondly: Why is it my fellow Kiwis are so completely incapable of handling fireworks like mature adults? Two things: The Union of Soviet Socialist Helengrads Nanny-State approach will not solve the issue. It may minimise the problems the Fire Service and hospitals have to deal with every year in the early part of November, but it won’t solve the main problem: Too many Kiwis are so hopelessly immature they can’t be trusted with even the pathetically weak fireworks that can be legally bought in New Zealand.
I mean, having seen the sheer amount of often very heavy ordnance detonated every Spring Festival in China and the generally responsible behaviour towards said ordnance displayed by the overwhelming majority of Chinese people, I really can’t figure out what is so wrong with New Zealanders.
And why do we still bother with that silly English holiday, anyway? Really, the only good thing that can be said in connection with Guy Fawkes’ Day is that Guy Fawkes was the only man to ever enter parliament with honest intentions. Saw that spray-painted on a wall in Wellington one election year. 93, I believe- that would fit with the circumstances under which I saw that grafitto.
Rant ?? (I wonder if those two characters display properly?), better get back to the office.
I see questions marks, which I assume mark the place where there should be characters.
I doubt whether you can get characters to appear in comments, but let me try.
???
Nah. Just three question marks.
Same for me. Damn. Looks like the blogtown upgrade broke the Chinese language. I’ll see if I can find Stuart and ask him to fix it.
I’ve just tried a couple of different encodings, but they make no difference.
Me too. Looks like something got knocked out of shape when the upgrade happened.
All China blogs ever do is complain about the state of New Zealand politics.
Seriously though, I think that most expatriates look at how their county mates act with mild horror because they feel it reflects on themselves. When you’re abroad you tend to have a keener understanding that images get projected around the world and shape international opinion.
Good point, Josh, although I think in my case it’s also the desire to have a country I could feel comfortable living in to go back to should the time come. Of course, most things about New Zealand are fine, some are even really good, but yes, looking back from my 11,000 km distance, a lot of what goes on there does disgust me.