Debate | Issue 22

debate ISSUE 22 19 | SEPTEMBER 2015 ISSUE | AUGUST 2015

CREDITS EDITOR Laurien Barks laurien.barks@aut.ac.nz SUB-EDITORS Matthew Cattin Amelia Petrovich Julie Cleaver DESIGNERS Ramina Rai CONTRIBUTORS Amelia Petrovich, Kieran Bennett, Julie Cleaver, Conor Leathley, Samira Kakh, Shivan, Ethan Sills, Tyler Hinde, Mahafrin Variava

CONTENTS

ADVERTISING Harriet Smythe hsmythe@aut.ac.nz

Pg 3 Editor’s Letter

Pg 24 Behind the Scenes of Journo Dreams

Pg 6 Three – Minute Sprint

Pg 26 Cool Shit

Contributions can be sent to

lbarks@aut.ac.nz

Pg 8 Small People, Big Changes

PRINTER Debate is lovingly printed by Soar Print

Pg 10 When Rape isn’t “Rape”

Pg 27 The Write Way Pg 28 Behind the Scenes: A Vogue Style

Pg 14 3am Thoughts

Debate is a member of

the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA)

This publication is entitled to the full protection given by the Copyright Act 1994 (“the Act”) to the holders of the copyright, being AUCKLAND STUDENT MOVEMENT AT AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED (“AuSM”).

Reproduction, storage or display of any part of this publication by any process, electronic or otherwise (except for the educational purposes specified in the Act) without express permission is a break of the copyright of the publisher and will be prosecuted accordingly. Inquiries seeking permission to reproduce should be addressed to AuSM.

Shoot

Pg 15 In Short

Pg 30 Reviews

Pg 16 Sweating the Not-So-Small Stuff

Pg 32 Kids Behind Things

Pg 20 Wait Staff Confessions

Pg 33 Recipe

Pg 22 The Killing Joke

Pg 34 Puzzles Cover illustration by Tyler Hinde

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EVENTS Carl Ewen carl.ewen@aut.ac.nz

I try and hit up a stunning landscape every weekend, so I am routinely reminded. I’m always awestruck, I’m always appreciative, but no matter what, I can’t get back that ‘first time’ reaction that only comes around once per breath-taking location. I guess you could say, last weekend took me ‘behind the scenes’ of fresh eyes, and due to the close proximity to these guys’ complete, losing-it excitement, I came pretty damn close to that incomparable feeling again. (Sloppy link to this week’s theme, Laurien…but it’s a cute pride-filled story, so please continue).

Cruising along the windy Waitakere roads, the boys happily chit chatting in Spanish, me happily making up my own dialogue for what they were saying – the atmosphere was incredibly chill. Surrounded by trees, and sound-tracked by solid mix of Bon Jovi, “pre-loco” Shakira, and Mexican love songs that seemed to have a TSwift-esque feel, these tourists had no idea what they were in for.

Cue the first glimpse of Lion Rock, black sand, and turquoise water.

EDITOR’S LETTER Hello all!

This week at Debate, we are all about “Behind the Scenes”.

The team went above, beyond, and behind to get the scoop on a variety of topics from a refreshingly new angle! Whether it be behind the scenes of a person, a job, an industry, we’ve got it all here for you to get amongst. So please…indulge us, and have a peak. Also, I don’t say it enough, but I probably should…we welcome any and all feedback around here. If you love, hate, or wish to discuss anything from the editor’s letter onward, we’d love to hear from you! My email address is on the contents page, my office is on city campus, and my phone number is on most bathroom stall walls, so never be afraid to get in touch (for a good time)!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of touring three lovely Mexican boys around the greater Auckland area like the pimp daddy I am. We drove out west to Piha for the afternoon, and the stars aligned, the sun came out, and despite the frosty temperature, it was a stellar day for the beach.

Now, it’s not like I forget that we live in a beautiful country.

The belting Mexican fiesta pouring out of my car speakers was all of a sudden overtaken by “Woooooows!” and enthusiastic Spanish chattering that I didn’t need translated. Faces against the windows, and hands ready on the door handle – I couldn’t get to the first lookout fast enough. They poured out, jumped on the fence for a better view, had their cameras out, and barely came up for air between breathless exclamations.

I couldn’t help but giggle and revel in the excitement that resided at the end of their pointed fingers in every direction.

When you’ve been to a place a thousand times, the details become part of the big spectacular picture. When you go with first timers, every little detail is its own awe-inducing wonder. It’s pretty bloody exhilarating!

We were up and down the rocks, we were in all corners of the beach, we played in the black sand…hell, I was even persuaded to jump in for a swim (though, it didn’t last long).

We made friends with other visitors, we played a bit of ball with said friends, and left the beach feeling absolutely satisfied.

I’ve been to that beach too many times to count, and I never realized I was in a rut (albeit an enjoyable one), until the newbies’ excitement forced me out of it. Like a breath of fresh air, it was like I was seeing an old friend for the first time all over again, and loving them even more because of it.

It’s funny how far a fresh take on an old favourite can go. Get out, get about, and show this damn fine country off every chance you get. Your guests, tourists, and pals won’t be the only ones who benefit from it.

Have a good week everyone!

Laurien 3

Anywhere Anytime

library.aut.ac.nz

Librarian of the Week Sushila Parmanandam Accounting, Economics, Finance, Marketing & Advertising

Hi, my name is Sushila and I am one of the Liaison Librarians also known as Subject Librarians here at AUT. We provide teaching, learning and research support to staff and students across the University.

The specific subject areas I look after are Accounting, Economics, Finance and MARS (Marketing, Advertising, Retailing and Sales).

Have you ever felt powerless over the volume of information available in any one topic for your assignment or felt that you cannot find anything at all written on your topic? Well, what you need is good research skills to be able to search effectively in the right places to get the information you need.

On a number of occasions I have come across students who have said they wished they had received research skills training or had known about certain resources earlier in their study. So don’t leave it too late!

I can teach you information searching skills and offer in-depth help in finding information for your topics. Most of the Business databases, although intended for end-user searching, often need some introduction and instructions before you can make the best use of them.

Use the Library Subject Guides on the Library website as a “onestop shop” to find subject-specific and course-specific journal articles, books, e-books, websites, database user guides and help with essential tasks like doing research and referencing help.

If you have a question, please send me an email and I will get back to you.

I am also available for one-on-one research consultations. Just send an email with the outline of the question and the days and times you are available and I’ll get back to you confirming a time to see you.

I look forward to meeting you. All the best for your studies.

Sushila Parmanandam Liaison Librarian

sparmana@aut.ac.nz 921 9999 ext 8510 City Campus Library

5

3 MIN SPRINT Amelia Petrovich I’m not normally a massive bitch.

I mean, not to people I don’t know.

Well, I mean, not to people I don’t know and I work with. …usually.

There was this one time though, this one wild time where I got full license to be a scary, screaming adult and actually ended up getting cool as heck results.

The whole fiasco probably wouldn’t have gone down in such a dramatic fashion if the job itself did not involve dealing with copious amounts of TV people.

See I was working at the Rugby Sevens tournament one year, not because I know a great deal about sports, but because I know how to get places roughly on time and use a walkie-talkie well. Television is perhaps not the first thing you’d consider when it comes to rugby, especially not at a tournament like The Sevens where everybody is too sloshed to watch the big screen anyway, but I can assure you that an awful lot of sprinting around with cameras goes on throughout.

So there’s me, at the tender age of barely 19, patiently waiting around on the sidelines for something to help out with, zero clue about the surreal turn my wee life was about to take. A message comes through over the walkie-talkie and I’m instantly alert, finger pressed to my in-ear. Full bodyguard mode.

“Hey, you need to make sure that camera man down there is up on the balcony of the corporate box in time for the next cross.”

Was that all? No worries. I’d been guiding camera people up and down the Westpac Stadium stands all day with ease. I mean sure, there had been the odd drunken thigh grab to swat away but other than that no real drama to report. I could do this.

“The only thing is, he’s about to film a presenter at full time and you’ll have a three minute ad break to get him all the way up there, cool?

Great. Do not fuck it up.”

Hold on, what?

If you’ve ever been to Wellington’s Westpac Stadium (aka ‘The Cake Tin’) you’ll know that all the way up to the top balcony from the field is a bloody long way. Like, a small mountain of a climb. I mean even if you’ve never seen or heard of the place before, perhaps you have some appreciation of the fact

“A

message

comes

through over the walkietalkie and I’m instantly alert, to

finger my

pressed

in-ear.

Full

bodyguard mode.” that sports stadiums are flipping huge and to sprint up to the top of one (through all the winding inner corridors and staircases) is an insane ask.

As I looked over at my hiking buddy, getting ready to film his first guy, I noticed that he wasn’t the most lithe looking person I’d ever met either.

The act that he was supposed to pick up was the lead singer from Opshop too, just by the way (you know, the people who sang “Maybe” was back in the day), so it was important that I figured out a way to get this dude to absolutely sprint with me.

Which is where bitch-me came to life.

As soon as the pivotal ad break flashed up on the big screen I found myself turning to the camera man and screeching “COME WITH ME NOW!” I then turned and gassed it up through the stands. I looked behind me at some stage and noticed that my poor new friend was only walking so I, in all my bolshie, nineteen year old glory hollered down at him

“NO, COME ON, WE NEED TO RUN AND WE NEED TO MAKE THIS WORK! GOOOOOOO!” I don’t think I made him very happy, but I did make him speed up.

We scaled what felt like umpteen staircases as my heart throbbed in my ears. I had no idea what the time was either, had we already missed our cue? Maybe, but in that moment it really didn’t matter, the only thing that mattered was getting that damn camera on that damn Opshop guy.

With 30 seconds or so to spare, we finally made a dash through some doors onto the balcony where the singer was all kitted out and ready to go. I didn’t have time to think about where to stand or what to do, I just heard a voice announce the singer from Opshop amidst a cacophony of applause and ducked down out of shot.

The voice came down my inear once again and it was congratulatory, apparently we’d done it and the shot was looking great. I was so exhausted I don’t think I even cared. I just crouched there, panting like an idiot, staring up at the crotch of that guy from Opshop as he sang, and thinking “holy heck, what is my life even.”

It was a weird as hell behind the scenes moment, that’s all I can say.

7

SMALL PEOPLE MAKING BIG CHANGES Mahafrin Variava I’m hoping the title of this article speaks for itself. But before I go ahead and introduce two people who’ve inspired me in 2015, I just want to talk about WHY I’ve picked them and why I picked this as a theme for my writing.

Firstly, it’s to open the minds of those of you reading this article. I hope you take this opportunity to think outside the box and perhaps look at doing some research into how you can, in your own way, make a BIG change.

Secondly, it’s to break some common stereotypes and take you behind the scenes of what those “society and media created stereotypes” are not.

And thirdly, it’s to prove this statement to be true: “Big things come in small packages”.

I met Dana Almedallah at the Havard Project of Asian and International Relations 2015 in Manila a few weeks

ago, and my respect and admiration for her, her work and her journey shows no bounds. But why did I choose Dana for my article with Debate? Dana breaks every cultural and religious stereotype we have about women in Islam, and in particular, their so-called “oppression” in the “Muslim world”.

Yes, yes, you may argue that Dana is only one example of a young woman who has broken barriers, but I’d like to tell you about the big changes she is making in the traditional and albeit conservative land of Saudi Arabia, that you’d never hear about, because unfortunately, we choose to know more about what we’re conditioned to believe.

Dana is a well-spoken young woman from Saudi Arabia, doing her best to empower young women and girls in Saudi Arabia by emphasising

the importance of education. But she chooses to do this differently.

Dana’s backstory takes us to when she was quite the jumpy little girl at school, and was told by one of her teachers that she would never be able to do well! Years later, Dana is a medical student at university, and has expressed herself by creating an organisation for students to help teach each other and also supports orphans, the elderly, and sick children.

I would have never heard about Dana had I not attended HPAIR this year.

Because we never hear about the small people (in Dana’s case, as young as 20) making a difference in their countries in one way or another. Dana also breaks the many-set stereotypes we have about “conservative Muslim countries”. Dana made the choice and took the opportunity to make a change. Dana redefined that

no matter where you are, nothing should limit you or hold you back from what you want to achieve.

In Dana’s words, “don’t be afraid to create your own opportunity”.

“I wished the stadium had been filled with New Zealanders, young and old, who needed to understand that no refugee wanted to leave their home.”

The next individual I chose to write about is closer to home than we think. I bring to you Abbas Nazari. A little background about Abbas: he is a former refugee who arrived in New Zealand on the MS Tampa in 2001 from Afghanistan.

I chose to talk about Abbas in light of the recent refugee crisis. Many nasty comments were floating around social media about refugees not integrating into society, and using tax payer’s money and bringing terrorism with them.

Well when Abbas spoke at HPAIR he spoke proudly of New Zealand.

He is currently doing an exchange in Singapore, and on international night, he wore his All Blacks jersey loud and proud!

In his speech, Abbas didn’t speak about an organisation he started, or an initiative he began - he spoke about his journey as a refugee. And what came next, was probably the most admirable thing I’d heard.

Towards the end, he spoke about his journalistic aspirations and his intentions to return to Afghanistan someday to contribute and help change society there for its betterment. At that moment, I wished the stadium had been filled with New Zealanders, young and old, who needed to understand that no refugee wanted to leave their home.

No one wanted to abandon their home and carry one pair of clothes with absolutely no guarantee of ever returning to where they grew up, or staying alive another day! Who’d choose that life?

Abbas spoke about the fear his family and the many families on the Tampa felt, and the sudden stigma associated with Muslims during the time of the 9/11 attacks. I think his words really gave many of us an insight to this story and his experience.

We are so comfortable in our little bubble of existing knowledge, anything outside of that bubble leaves us feeling “uncomfortable”, or in the cases of Dana and Abbas, extremely inspired. I struggled with how to finish this article, because I didn’t know how to end it on a punchy conclusion that would do them justice. I then realised, I didn’t have to. Their work spoke volumes that’s all that ever mattered. So I’ll let them end this for me. Look them up and watch them create the big changes they aspire to achieve.

You can find Dana here: http://www.wise-qatar.org/learnersvoice-dana-almedallah Find Abbas Nazari’s speech here: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FDjbBtclk2c

9

WHEN RAPE I S N ’T “R A P E ” Behind Closed Doors Anonymous *TRIGGER WARNING* When I was 13, I was almost raped by the father of my friend. I consider myself lucky to have escaped with my virginity intact, however, the only reason I had any knowledge of adult desires at this age was because I had already encountered this type of misbehaviour before. Having this knowledge and being unable to do anything about my situation was the most frightening thing I have experienced in my life, and changed my view of the world entirely from that moment on.

I was a good kid, optimistic, intelligent. I had faith in human-kind and I liked to read. It was my first year at high school. I came from a broken and dysfunctional home and had been staying at a friend’s for about a week while things cooled down at my place.

It was during this time that my friend and I went to stay with her father. I thought it odd that her younger sister didn’t want to go, and the possibility of sexual abuse crossed my mind, especially as my friend’s mother was only 14 when she’d had her first child with this man. But, I ignored my instinct and went anyway. My friend’s father collected us from the mother’s home and drove us directly to a bottle store where he purchased us a huge bottle of vodka each, and cigarettes. I thought this was terrible parenting, but it was West Auckland and I had the impression from a young age that Westie parents didn’t always follow the rules. We drove up North, way into the country to stay with my friend’s aunty, uncle and cousins. They set up my friend and I, and her father, in the sleep out where there were two single beds (presumably for us girls) and a double bed (presumably for the adult).

“I thought it odd that her younger sister didn’t want to go, and the possibility of sexual abuse crossed my mind.”

Later that night, I had become so drunk that I threw up all over myself.

My friend’s father assisted me to bed – the double – and didn’t leave me for the rest of the night. He lay beside me, trying to kiss me. I was sickened by my gut as well as the repulsiveness of this hideous, old, grown-up, and I tried again and again to dodge his disgusting mouth, turning my head away again and again, but he would pull my face towards him. I was too drunk to speak for fear of vomiting again, but my actions were not subtle.

I was a child and this man, this father of my friend, whom I’d only just met that day, was trying to gain entry to my pants. My skin crawls at the thought of it, especially now that I am an adult and am able to comprehend the underhandedness of his actions.

At the time I wondered if maybe I was wrong, if maybe he was just trying to be nice. But the leg stroking

became crotch stroking, and the hair stroking became forceful grabs at my face. I have never felt so terrified, nor so ashamed and humiliated and disgusted in all my life. I had been clinging to the waist of my pants in an attempt to prevent him gaining entry.

I lost the button on these pants some time before, so in its place was a safety pin. When he had finally pinned my struggling arms to one side and tore my pants open, absolutely wrecking my safety pin, I knew I was in trouble. I was wishing like hell I hadn’t upset my mum and I was home in my bed, and I was praying my own dad wasn’t so far away, that he could somehow save me from this nightmare.

Somehow I managed to speak. I made up a need to go to the toilet.

When I got inside, everybody was asleep. I went to go and jump in the female cousin’s bed, but as I opened the door, I heard an angry “fuck off”.

I sat in the toilet and cried and cried and cried. I was too scared to go to the aunty and uncle, what if they didn’t believe me? I just had to find somewhere I was safe until the next day, when I would be returned home.

So I went to the boy cousin’s room. He was fast asleep and snoring. I gently shook him and asked if I could sleep there too. He grunted and I took it as a yes.

When I left the bed containing the rapist, my nightmare should have been over, but it wasn’t. He came looking for me in the dead of night. I had no idea what the time was, but I hadn’t been sleeping anyway. I pretended to be asleep in hopes of being left alone. I heard the aunty and uncle wake up at the sound of him creeping through the house, and they all eventually found me in the boy cousin’s bed. They asked me if I knew where I was, so in fear I lied and said that I didn’t know where I was.

The paedophile tried to persuade me to return to the sleep out, but the aunty and uncle eventually told him to just leave me there. He had no other option but to obey, or give away his disgusting secret.

If only the nightmare could have been over then.

11

“I could not make any claim through ACC for counselling, because no penetration had occurred.”

It took a few days, possibly even a week to process what had happened, but eventually I talked to my school counsellor about it to try and make sense of the situation.

My mother was then called into the school, and of course I had to break the horrible news to my friend that I had decided to go to the police. She was understandably devastated. This information ruined our friendship, out-cast me from my peers, and I became ‘that weird loner girl’ at school.

After the police investigated my allegation, I was told the jerk had denied it, and that it was my word against his. The questioning that followed angers me to this day. I was made to check my statement and asked if I was I sure it was my friend’s father. The police suggested I had been so drunk that I could have mistaken myself being almost-raped by the father when it could have actually been the young cousin.

I was threatened by a fear-tactic warning that it was an offence to lie to police, but I persisted in asking, what if it happened to somebody else? Would it not be better to have him behind bars than potentially raping more children? What if the next person wasn’t so lucky?

But I was continually told it was my word against his. There was absolutely nothing a 13 year old girl could do. So much for bravado…

My high school years, which had initially promised so much, utterly destroyed me. I was no longer optimistic. Not only did the police think I was a liar, but my friends abandoned me as a helpless drama queen intent on stirring shit.

I was outcast by my wider group of peers and was threatened by those who were bigger than me.

Even my school failed to support me, their belief in my story would only come with sound scientific evidence, of which there was none due to a failed rape attempt. I had no support from victim support because I was no longer perceived a “victim”. I could not make any claim through ACC for counselling, because no penetration had occurred.

I wagged school because attending classes made my life a misery, instead of showing me life’s promise like it once had. I had no friendship, no family support, and no emotional healing. I turned away from my books and instead turned to running away from home.

I began to dabble with drugs and alcohol in an attempt to obliterate the reality of my pain. I dropped out of school (at 14) and began prostituting, and by 15 I was pregnant. I spent time in countless foster homes during this time. I tried to commit suicide at 17 and again at around 18. As I got older, my ability to control my anxiety and depression worsened as my anger deepened.

I lost all trust and faith in men. I continued prostituting until I was 21, rationalising that all men would only use me anyway, so I may as well get something out of it. I had a few boyfriends, but was unable to commit myself emotionally or sexually. It was like my emotions and my sexuality had been stripped from me, I was nothing but the shell of a person. I began taking medication about two years ago for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“I was wishing like hell I hadn’t upset my mum and I was home in my bed, and I was praying my own dad wasn’t so far away, that he could somehow save me from this nightmare.”

This experience made me unable to trust or warm to men. I work hard to reduce any male attention.

Recently, a very close friend asked me “What’s up with the ‘Dyke’ hair-do?” I can’t explain to her the pain I have been through – not many know the extent of suffering in my history, not even my closest friends. But I laugh it off and fob it off with some casual remark or other, though deep down inside I’m ashamed and afraid.

I work in an industry which is predominantly female, but the few males I cross make me wonder if they are only friendly because they’re interested in something else; it takes me a very, very long time to warm to men, if I ever do. My own family members are not exempt either. Even though I met my partner seven years ago, I am unable to relax around the male members of his family, for example his father or step-father or brother, and we have had a lot of turmoil within our relationship. If it wasn’t for my partner taking the time to persevere with me, we would not have lasted this long, but even so we had to have relationship counselling to get through the worst of it. My inability to feel emotion for a huge part of my life led to some very damaging behaviour towards my wonderful partner, and although things are pretty good now, I will never be able to undue the hurt that I caused him.

Sadly, I knew deep down that eventually I would hear that my friend’s father had been accused of rape again. Unfortunately, he has had almost 16 years walking free, and in that time has gone on to rape at least a dozen other young girls, wrecking their lives without any thought. He ruined my childhood, he stole my dignity, and in doing so, almost bereft me of my adult life. I can only admit that I was glad to hear that this pig was locked up, but saddened for the destruction of youth that continued in his wake

while he was free. I know how traumatic it has been for myself, the one that got away, but I can only imagine the excruciating pain and self-loathing the other girls may have suffered at his ignorant, selfish stupidity.

“Despite this negative experience which impacted my life for so long, I am now able to turn my life around, and hopefully others’ lives too.”

Since taking medication for my PTSD, I have been able re-establish my adult life and begin university.

So far I am doing very well and am almost halfway through my degree.

Despite being advised police were building a case during my very first fortnight at university, I have been able to rediscover my true potential through the vice of education, which has enabled me to feel brave and strong again; to feel my blood coursing furiously through my veins as I relish the thought of justice (finally!)

In writing this, I obviously felt some extremely intense emotions of sadness, shame and disgust, feelings I’ve had to suppress and pretend didn’t exist for 16 years because of this awful person. But the fury and rage inside me burns bright with potential for the future.

I am very humanist-minded and I have a soft spot for the underdogs.

Despite this negative experience which impacted my life for so long, I am now able to turn my life around, and hopefully others’ lives too. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and in my experience that wasn’t exactly the truth, as recovery has taken up most of my life, but because of that, I am now able to put my knowledge and experience to good use, and intend to use my degree for the benefit of the community I serve. The thing that saved me was my prior knowledge, so I encourage people to start talking about sexual abuse more, talk about it with children and talk about it with the men in your life (apologies for generalizing, women are sometimes perpetrators too). Society needs to know that this behaviour is NOT okay, but our people (young and old victims) need to know that it IS okay to talk about it.

For more information you can contact Rape Crisis: 0800 88 33 00 *Names have been Omitted to protect identities*

13

3 AM THOUGHTS

and scoop up one of our gold fish with a Tupperware container because apparently in ‘Buddy Holly’s apartment’ there was a fish bowl. When I asked her in my condescending, pre-pubescent way why she didn’t just leave the fish at the theatre for the next night, she explained the joke.

What went down is that this was a pretty small fish bowl, and every night my mum brought a slightly bigger fish.

The backstage crew all knew what was happening, but none of the actors had any idea, and by closing night, they were left to perform a scene with a giant fish lingering in their peripheral vision making them wonder if they’d gone batshit crazy.

3:00am, Wednesday 26th August Thought: ‘In-jokes are just like behind the scenes humor’ Amelia Petrovich Behind the scenes shit is way more interesting than in front of the scenes shit. I’d know; my dad was a theatre stage manager. Actually, my mum was theatre stage manager too.

Specifically, my mum was trained by my dad to be a theatre stage manager, which is how they met in the first place. But that’s some backstage magic that literally nobody wants to know because parents are just parents, they don’t have sex or relationships or anything because that would be gross, they just kind of become parents somehow, and we’re all cool with leaving it there.

So anyway, they’ve both spent ages telling me all of these fantastic,

depraved showbiz tales from a time before I was around to curb their alcohol intake. My God does backstage life sound fun. See, people in front of the curtain, so to speak, don’t get to muck around a whole lot. In most cases you have a script or a musical score to roughly stick to and deliver because it’s kind of, you know, your job and stuff. But backstage, as long as the show runs and nobody dies, no one is going to have a flipping clue what you’re getting up to.

I remember my mum working on Wellington’s season of Buddy Holly once; I might have been around ten. Every night before she went to work, she’d run out into the garden

It was harmless and it was silly, but to me it was the extreme epitome of an ‘in-joke’ (a running gag that only a few people understand, just FYI. This column isn’t an in-joke; I want you to know what’s going on). Because aren’t all in-jokes just humor performed backstage? An onstage joke would be something like somebody busting out a pun in the middle of a conversationeverybody who’s there would see it.

A backstage joke might only make sense to a few people and that’s why they’re awesome, they make you feel all included and smug.

Y’all know the feeling right? You mention how much you like apples or something and your two clued-up buddies turn to each other with a smirk and go “yeah but not red apples though,” and burst into PEELS (lol) of laughter. That’s some behind the scenes humor right there. Maybe ‘red apples’ is code for ‘inappropriate fondling in the middle of a lecture hall’, maybe they’re thinking about the time that you got drunk and stole fruit from the bar you were at, or maybe they just reckon you’re a dick for over-simplifying apples. The point is, you don’t know. All the connections are being made behind the scenes and that’s kind of beautiful in an annoying, exclusive kind of way… those pricks.

IN SHORT

KITTENS CONSUMED MUCH HIGHER THAN REPORTED

Kieran Bennett

Following the leaking of a classified parliamentary report, Debate's news team can now exclusively confirm that the Prime Minister consumes around 45 percent more kittens than publicly claimed. The revelation has sparked large amounts of backlash towards Mr Key and his party, with some feeling this is a waste of kittens.

This is not the first time that Mr Key has come under fire for his consumption of innocent life-forms. When first taking the office, questions were raised about the legitimate need for the 'Deep Fried Puppies Bill, 2008'. At the time, Mr Key dismissed any concerns, saying “at the end of the day, I don't think Kiwi's really care about

puppies. Now, flags, flags are fuckin' tight”.

The public and parliament had accepted for a long while that the Prime Minister had an unquenchable thirst for blood, and so simply reported bimonthly the number of kittens consumed by the leader of the National Party. Thanks to extensive undercover work, however, an internal report has been found that shows the kitten numbers have been grossly underreported.

The discovery of the report has led to an internal investigation into parliament. Though Mr Key is confident that he will find Mr Key innocent of any wrong doing.

because of brutal farming documentaries, for example, is staggering. There’s something about seeing evidence of injustice with your own eyes that makes it a little bit harder to look away afterwards, and possibly even harder not to try and act.

Maybe vegetarianism isn’t compelling for you personally though, and I can understand that. Perhaps injustice that involves animals is still a concept that some people find it easy to detach from. But what happens when the entire world gets a behind the scenes look at something involving humans?

BEHIND THE SCENES KNOWLEDGE Amelia Petrovich You know what’s interesting? How motivating being able to see ‘behind the scenes’ seems to be.

There is so much that goes on in the world that we kind of know about, but still feel very separate from. We kind of know that coca cola is full of sugar and evil, but we tend not to think about it. We also kind of know that dramatic stuff in Europe is going on right now, but often it takes actual visual evidence for us to engage in something that can feel so very, very far away.

You can see the influence of behind the scenes knowledge sometimes on a relatively personal, micro-level. The amount of people I know questioning their own stance on vegetarianism

Apparently a great deal happens.

Take for instance the Syrian refugee crisis that’s been plastering the news. We all kind of knew about it and if anyone stopped to ponder for a while, the whole situation would undoubtedly have prompted at least empathy. But as soon as shocking imagery of children washed ashore in Turkey was circulated globally, people actually began to stand up and take government lobbying action. Because you see, photos and footage (especially in the news) brings what has previously been behind the scenes to center stage.

In a world like ours where people are digitally, but not necessarily geographically or culturally connected, behind the scenes detail and knowledge is paramount.

Taking the time to understand the ins, outs and sometimes even the huge tragedies of humanity around the world is what prompts real action in the end.

SWEATIN G THE NOT-SO-SMALL STUFF Julie Cleaver Whenever I go shopping (which is not very often) I constantly ask myself, ‘how can this top only cost ten bucks? It’s so cheap!’ How can the entire process of turning raw materials into fabric, dying it, designing it, creating a pattern for it, sewing it, packaging it, distributing it, and then selling it at a retail store that needs to pay rent and wages, only cost ten dollars? To find the answer I looked behind the scenes of the fashion industry and discovered that the true cost of a shirt that cheap is social and environmental destruction, although that is never printed on the cardboard tags.

We’ve all heard of sweatshops, but what actually are they? The US Department of Labor says that sweatshops are factories that violate two or more national labor laws. So if a factory hires children and doesn’t pay the correct minimum wage to employees, it’s a sweatshop. Sweatshops are an insanely big problem, as one in six people in the world work in a garment factory, according to the documentary

The True Cost. Also, the International Labour Organisation estimates that around 168 million children worldwide aged five (!) to 14 are forced to work in sweatshops.

After reading those shocking facts, one question in particular started to burn my insides: do governments actually let this happen? To find out, I looked into New Zealand and Bangladeshi laws - as Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of clothing - and the answer I discovered was interesting.

Firstly, the New Zealand Fair Trading Act, 1986, prohibits certain unfair conduct in trade, promotes fair trade, and prohibits misleading sales. The Act applies to overseas organisations conducting business in New Zealand, but only if it relates to the actual goods and services.

"So basically the law ensures products we buy are safe to use, however does not enforce fair trade."

The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, has some really good points. It states that employees must be given 120 days notice if fired, that children are strictly prohibited to work, that women are entitled to maternity leave payment for at least eight weeks, that all factories must be safe to work in, and that under ordinary circumstances, people are not allowed to work for longer than eight hours a day. However, although these laws are excellent, there is evidence suggesting that they are not strictly enforced.

In several studies conducted by Unicef, it was discovered that there are 17 million children working in Bangladesh. Also, according to various sources, including the South China Morning Post, women who work in factories are almost always fired if they get pregnant. Some employers even force their workers to take birth control pills, according to Bender and Greenwald’s book Sweatshop USA. The book also says that women are extremely vulnerable to sexual harassment from male superiors. Since an estimated 80-95 percent of garment factory workers are female, this is a huge problem.

Additionally, factories are not always safe to work in. In 2013 an eight-story garment factory called Rana Plaza collapsed, leaving over 1100 workers dead and 2000 injured. Rana Plaza is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and this is considered the deadliest garment factory disaster in history.

The Bangladeshi government downplayed the incident, saying it was merely an accident and not a result of poorly enforced labour laws.

However, since another factory in Bangladesh collapsed five months earlier, killing 113 people, Rana Plaza was clearly no freak accident.

ACCORDING TO VA R I O U S SOURCES, INCLUDING THE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, WOMEN WHO WORK IN FAC TO R I E S A R E A L M O S T A LWAY S FIRED IF THEY GET PREGNANT. And then there’s wages, probably the most frequently discussed problem with sweatshops. Interestingly, in all of the 144 pages that make up the Bangladesh Labour Act, the exact minimum wage isn’t stated anywhere. However, other sources confirm that the minimum wage in Bangladesh is around $3.70 NZD a day. That’s 46 cents an hour for an eight-hour day, and this is after a 77 percent wage increase in 2013.

To put that in perspective, for New Zealand employees over 16-yearsold, the minimum wage is $14.75 an hour. So if you work 40 hours a weeks, before tax, you will be making $2360 a month. In Bangladesh, working 40 hours a week will earn you $100 a month. So in Bangladesh, they make 4.2 percent of what we make here.

But isn’t it way cheaper to live there than here, I hear you asking? Yes, it is, but not that much cheaper.

According to Numbeo.com, an independent data website founded by a software engineer who used to work for Google, the minimum cost of food for one person in Bangladesh is around $185 NZD a month. That’s if they eat a typical western diet consisting of things like eggs, milk, bread, tomatoes, chicken, apples and so on. If they were to eat an Asian style diet, it would be around $135, which is still $35 more than their average monthly wage. And that is just for one person. As Helen Lovejoy from the Simpsons once said, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?”

In New Zealand Numbeo.com estimates that the same diet would cost us around $410 NZD a month.

That leaves minimum wage workers with $1950 a month before tax. So dispel the myth that in developing countries they get paid less because their cost of living is lower.

Proportionally, garment factory workers are still barely making enough to survive.

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I N T H E 2 015 R E P O R T , M A J O R FA S H I O N B R A N D S W E R E G R A D E D O N T H E E T H I C S A N D T R A N S PA R E N C Y OF

THEIR

LABOR

PRACTICES.

SOME

C O M PA N I E S

S C O R E D S O B A D LY, T H AT I F I G OT T H AT G R A D E AT U N I , I WO U L D D E F I N I T E LY R U N H O M E C RY I N G .

Why not just raise the minimum wage?

According to the documentary The True Cost, multinational corporations demand factories to make garments cheap, and as factories are desperate to get business, they oblige and cut costs to fit the quota. Also, developing country governments are desperate to get business into their countries to help their economies grow, so they are against raising the minimum wage out of fear of losing international business.

Also, since sweatshops cut costs wherever possible, protecting the environment is a luxury way too expensive to even think about.

Sweatshops notoriously dispose of a large amount of wastewater into rivers and oceans and pollute the atmosphere with harsh fumes. In India the holy Ganges River is unbelievably polluted due to sweatshops. People have lived off that river for many years, and now they can no longer sustain their lifestyles, as the water is too dirty to drink.

Then there’s all the waste from developed countries disposing of clothes they no longer want.

According to the Ministry for the Environment in New Zealand, we throw away 100 million kilos of clothing every year. That’s the equivalent of every Kiwi throwing away 145 medium sized T-shirts a year. This waste is produced as people buy cheap garments, wear them a few times, then get rid of

them and buy more cheap clothing.

Companies speed up this process by marketing new trends all the time, encouraging consumers to buy even more. This phenomenon is known as ‘fast fashion’, and it is a wasteful cycle destroying our environment and making us poorer.

All this information is hard to digest, I know. But you know what the craziest part is? It’s all in our control. We’re the ones buying the cheap clothing and keeping the cycle going. So if we stopped buying cheap, sweatshopmade clothing, companies would have to change. The power is in our hands.

Despite all the negative social and environmental impacts of sweatshops, many economists defend their existence. According to Miller who wrote, “Why Economists Are Wrong About Sweatshops” in the journal Challenge, many economists argue two main principles when defending sweatshops. One, that sweatshops are the best option for people in the third world, and two, that workers freely choose to work there (most of the time). They also say that cheap labor is great for western economies.

But it’s so expensive to buy local/ fair trade clothing! That is true, and I’ve had a look around, some of it is pretty darn hideous too. But you don’t have to buy ethical, bamboo cotton, organically died, natural-hippy-yoga clothing to not support sweatshops.

There are many creative solutions to this problem. Here are a few suggestions:

These arguments are true to an extent, however Miller says, “If workers are denied the right to organize, suffer unsafe and abusive working conditions, are forced to work overtime, or are paid less than a living wage, then they work in a sweatshop, regardless of how they came to take their jobs or if the alternatives they face are worse yet.” (p. 103). To put it simply, even if people choose to work in sweatshops, and even if begging on the street is a worse option, sweatshops are still not right.

1) Op shop: op shopping is a great way to find rad clothing at a cheap price. As Macklemore and Ryan Lewis once said, “I wear your granddads clothes, I look incredible,” truth my brothers, truth.

2) Have a clothes swap: this is when you organise a group of friends (preferably of a similar clothing size) to get together and trade clothes you all no longer want. It’s a fun way to hang out and an awesome way to reuse and recycle clothes.

3) Don’t go overboard: one of my dear friends, God bless him, owns over fifteen pairs of Nike running shoes.

Seriously, you only need one pair at a time. Please, just don’t do it.

4) Buy things to last: before you buy an item of clothing, ask yourself, “am

I going to wear this over 30 times?” If the

Quicksilver disappointingly flunked with a

by 1.8 percent. So on every 20-dollar item,

answer is no, don’t buy it. Not wearing or disposing of clothes is a waste, and it just means that eventually you will have to go buy more.

5) Research before you buy: I know that’s not spontaneous and sometimes we just want to purchase a jumper for seven dollars with the acronym YOLO printed on the front, but remember, with every purchase or non-purchase, you are shaping the world. Heavy huh? But it’s true. And if you don’t want to do the research, read on, I’ve already done it for you.

D+, as well as the Just Group, (Just Jeans, Dotti, Peter Alexander, Portmans, Jay Jays, Smiggle and Jacquie) which scored a dismal D.

you would pay 36 cents more. That’s absolutely nothing to us, most people wouldn’t even pick that much money up if they saw it on the ground, but it means so much to millions of people. It also said most people would be willing to pay 15 percent more to know their clothing was ethically produced. There’s so much hope for this issue, we just need consumers to change their minds so companies will too.

The 2013 Australian Fashion Report was created in the wake of the Bangladesh Rana Plaza disaster. The report studied the transparency, policies, training, monitoring, and general worker rights of major garment companies. The results were shockingly bad, forcing some companies to rethink their policies and image. Now in 2015, two thirds of the corporations researched have improved their “labor rights management systems”, whatever the heck that means.

A few companies incorporated the popular ‘C’s get degrees’ motto into their production line, such as Billabong, Forever New, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Myer.

Even though they just scraped over the pass mark, they’re still not doing well, and I probably wouldn’t trust a C student to run any major corporation responsible for the livelihoods of thousands.

In the 2015 report, major fashion brands were graded on the ethics and transparency of their labor practices.

Some companies scored so badly, that if I got that grade at uni, I would definitely run home crying. Fast Future Brands (Valley Girl, Tempt and Mirrou) was one of the worst companies, scoring straight F’s across the board. Glassons wasn’t much better, failing miserably with a D-.

IN BANGLADESH, WORKING 40 HOURS A WEEK WILL EARN YOU $ 10 0 A M O N T H . S O I N BANGLADESH, THEY MAKE 4.2 PERCENT OF WHAT WE MAKE HERE.

The report specifically mentions how Kmart and The Cotton Group have improved from 2013 to 2015. It also graded Nike, Adidas, Kathmandu, Country Road, and Timberland in the B range. Kudos.

And of course fair trade companies like 3 fish and Etiko aced the test, taking home the best report card in the class.

A study conducted in 2004 in the Cambridge Journal of Economics found that if every sweatshop worker’s wage was doubled, our clothing would increase

Call me naïve or annoyingly optimistic, or both, but I believe that deep down, everyone wants to do something to help the world. Whether it be through donating a couple bucks to charity, giving a homeless woman half a doughnut, or being a journalist who exposes all the injustices in the world, prompting positive social change, (which is totally not my dream or anything… cough* cough*) I honestly think everyone is born with a desire to do something good.

In my opinion, the only thing stopping people from acting on that desire is helplessness and a lack of knowledge.

But with sweatshops, now you have knowledge, and you are not helpless, because it is an avoidable issue completely in your control.

If you would like to find out more, I’d start with watching The True Cost. It’s an incredible doco created by a cool young dude with a big blonde afro. I highly recommend it.

19

Wait Staff Confessions

Amelia Petrovich | Illustration by Tyler Hinde If we’re doing our job properly, you won’t even notice we’re there… which to be honest is probably why you notice us so much. Spilling wine, knocking over glasses and mixing up orders- it’s no great secret that a lot of wait staff you’ll run into aren’t actually that interested in staying in hospitality long term. They do have a fair few genuine secrets though, some incriminating, and some just handy tricks of the trade, unknown to your average bear.

If you rock up looking fine as hell, all of the staff will scope you out.

How are we supposed to get through the night and come to terms with our sad, lonely little lives if we can’t indulge in a little eye candy on shift?

This sounds a bit creepy but it’s not really… or at least it’s not as creepy as it could be… I think. In any case, if you’re a cutie, we’ll point you out. It will be covert, it could be something as discreet as a chair tap or an extended hover by your table, but it will happen. Feel privileged! Or don’t, we really are quite desperate.

The drunker you are, the drunker we’ll feel it’s acceptable to be.

I’m not confirming that drinking on shift is a thing that goes down, but it is definitely a heck of a lot more tempting to be a bit cheeky if everyone at the bar/ the function you’re working at is getting sloppy. We figure that under normal circumstances, we could be hanging out alongside you at whatever rowdy Britomart bar is looking good, so we may as well pretend. I mean, y’all are just sitting there eating fun food and having lols, we just want to join the party too.

None of us are really thinking about you specifically at all.

This third secret is negated slightly if you’re looking cute, as stated

above, but most of the time when you sit down at a restaurant or at a function, you simply become a number. A lot of wait staff will number off customers based on their position at a table to make it easier to take down and remember orders. Yeah that’s right, none of us actually remember you as the blonde girl who shyly ordered the steak and chips with the delicate wee bracelet, you’re now Position Three, sitting between the guy who came late and the problematic vegan.

W H A T DO YO U M E A N F I VE CU P S IN A R O W IS T O O M U CH ? W E N E E D IT .

There are probably at least two people on shift at who have slept together.

Because who else, exactly, is going to date you when you finish work every other night at 2:00am? Wait staff are really stressed out little souls and when you need to unwind and haven’t actually met a human being who doesn’t work with you in two months, it just makes sense.

We

know

food/diet

terminology

better than you do probably.

On the off chance that someone ordering food is actually gluten intolerant (rather than just a selfrighteous, ill-informed food blogger), we all have to learn about specific dietary requirements in case someone dies or takes us to court.

This means we do know what an ovo-lacto vegetarian is and therefore we will make sure none of your food shows up with animal bits in it, except of course milk and

eggs, because for some reason that kind of farming doesn’t stress people out as much. Conversely, we also will mentally call you out if you get your own jargon wrong. Don’t you go telling me you’re vegetarian and making me run all the way down to the kitchen to see what we’re feeding you if you’re ordering fish for mains. ‘Pescetarian’, man, get it right.

We’re all abusing something.

And nine times out of ten, that ‘something’ is coffee. Most of the time, staff will have been at work a couple of hours before you’ve even arrived and will stay behind to clean up all your mess for several hours after you leave. What do you mean five cups in a row is too much? We need it. I have seen other things though, I know a guy, for example, who obsessively chews Mentos in between every course and about a jillion people who are also heavy smokers (because you see, that way you get a smoke break. Have you ever tried getting a smoke break when you don’t smoke? Not the easiest my friend, not the easiest).

We’re all really buff, but just in our wrists.

We make carrying three plates and four full bottles of wine through a crowded room look graceful, but holy hell does it hurt. It took me literally eight months of training my wrists to be able to pull shit like that, walking around the house holding plates piled high with shoes, clothes and jewelry for added weight.

There’s a reason that nobody at the gym talks about ‘Wrist Day’ (well two actually, but the second is a little too secret to divulge), and that is because wrist training could break even the hardest of men. You think I’m kidding, but next time you’re in the kitchen, try holding a plate with your fingers and stacking an extra eight on your wrist. Where’s your God now?

21

THE KILLING JOKE

How portraying one of film’s greatest villains may have killed Hollywood’s brightest star.

Conor Leathley It is strange to look back now, at the way many reacted when Heath Ledger was cast in the role of the Joker for the 2008 Christopher Nolan film, The Dark Knight. For someone who was coming off a film that was nominated for the Best Motion Picture of the Year (as well as earning him his first Best Actor nomination), you’d have thought the casting decision would have been met with open arms. However, that successful movie happened to be Brokeback Mountain, a film that many people naively saw as a simple story about two gay cowboys getting it on. Fan boys around the world proclaimed this was the worst casting decision ever, this would ruin the film legacy of the Joker that Jack Nicholson had made so iconic.

The gay cowboy proved to be the right choice, as it turns out, executing perhaps the greatest acting performance of the 21st Century. The Dark Knight turns it up to eleven in the opening scenes, as criminals launch a daring heist into the bank that’s run by the mob. It is at the culmination of the heist that you realise the leader of the criminal group is, indeed, the Clown Prince of Crime himself. The gravitas only heightens as he sets his sights on Gotham, leaving a trail of mystery, death and anarchy in his wake. Consequently pushing the Batman to his absolute limit in the process.

The ending of the film is an anomaly for most superhero films, as the good guy loses. Though he was physically defeated, the Joker successfully corrupted the ‘true’ hero of Gotham, thus securing his place in the pantheon of the greatest film villains ever.

However, it can be somewhat poignant watching this performance, knowing that it was Ledger’s last full role. Though he received a slew of major awards for his performance, including the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor (only the second person ever to receive a posthumous acting Oscar), each was tinged with the sadness of the knowledge that Ledger would never get a chance to win another.

He did leave behind a strong resume, which only served to be an indication that Ledger did have the potential to push on and become one of the true, enduring icons of Hollywood.

It is only recently that a diary has come out about the preparation that Ledger underwent for the Joker. The contents of the diary were revealed in a German documentary called Too Young to Die. “It was typical of Heath on any movie,” explains his father Kim, during the documentary, “and I think this was just a whole new level.”

It had long been known that he had gone full method actor in the lead up to the film, locking himself in a hotel room to perfect his craft. However, the diary shows just how far down the rabbit hole Ledger really went.

It seems as though Ledger drew strong inspiration from the character of Alex DeLarge, who featured in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. For those who have seen the film, it is clear that there is an element of that character within Ledger’s Joker.

Alex was someone who delighted in causing pain to others, who surrounded himself with ‘droogs’ (buddies), yet showed no sympathy toward them.

He has no redeeming qualities, and seems to fancy himself as somewhat of a ‘joker’. Within the diary are also the words ‘bye-bye’, which ominously suggest how much of an effect the preparation for the role had on his mind-set.

It is interesting to watch his performance in The Dark Knight and wonder how it would be perceived had Ledger not died. Would it be diminished at all, still be held to the same high standard that it is today?

Some have even said that his Oscar win was simply a token to appreciate his final completed work.

But, I’m sure that you have been able to overcome typically societal cynicisms and truly appreciate that this is a once in a life time sort of art. So much so, in fact, that he made Jack Nicholson’s take on the Joker (he of three Academy Award wins, himself) appear dated and tame. So sit back and appreciate one of the greatest performances of our time. After all, why so serious?

23

B E HI ND T H E S CENES OF J O UR NO D REAMS Anonymous Some of you may remember the tragic death of a construction worker at AUT back in 2012. I have the misfortune of remembering it better than most, as I saw the aftermath while walking across campus. I didn’t see him fall. I’m thankful for that. But as I walked past WT on my way to a tutorial, I saw him sprawled, injured on the pavement, surrounded by workmates. The familiar plunge of seeing another human in pain swept through me, accelerating my heart and heating my face. I didn’t stick around to watch as emergency services arrived - there were quite enough gawkers cluttering the streets, in my opinion.

In the newsroom, I sat down at my computer a little shaken.

I told my friend what had happened and - being in a room full of inquisitive young journalists - the whole room knew very quickly. A tutor barges through the doors, “is anybody onto the accident at WT?” he asked. Nobody said anything, but many eyes looked in my direction. Um… Nope. Not me. I was dobbed in as the guy who walked passed the drama, and the tutor looked disappointed in me. A missed opportunity. Yes, that’s journalism, and yes my tutor was right in his disapproval of my moral inability to jump on a story, but on that day, I realised I didn’t quite have what it takes to be a reporter.

Yet today, here I am three weeks into my first job as a Fairfax reporter - community news. As somebody that never envisioned writing news stories for a living, I must admit I was surprised to end up here. But, budding AUT journalists, I’m here to share with you what it’s like to work the beat as a community news reporter.

First and foremost, if you’re not big on puns, journalism is the wrong career choice for you. News writing is the acrostic poem of creative compositions. Everything is he says, she says, soul-destroying quotations, and of course the upside down pyramid structure of impotency.

The sad truth of it is, puns are the only creative element journalists really have in their writing artillery, and by God we thrive off of them. Journalism’s ‘tell me, don’t show me’ style allows no room for clever adjectives and attention-seeking metaphors. It’s dry as a sex-addict in a straightjacket. Make friends with puns. They are your life now.

I believe it is immensely important, also, to understand what community journalism actually is. The brave souls wearing bulletproof vests whilst wielding pens in war zones - this is not you. The tech-savvy political naysayers with contact books full of hackers - this is also probably not you. Community journalism is about the little people - the normal people. It’s about helping the cute retired couple find their beloved cat, it’s about school book weeks, it’s about young minds doing bright things. Community papers are the school newsletters of journalism - they build people up, provide support, and give good people exposure, and bad deeds colourful puns. I guess in other words, it’s grassroots journalism at its finest. And all with no Kardashian in sight - hoorah.

So what does a day in the life of a community journo look like? Is it all council battles and elderly folk? Is it all primary school agriculture days and mufti days? Well mostly, but I promise it’s more than that too. For starters, every day is different. The day you have planned when you leave home is often vastly different to the day you shake off on the doorstep each evening. Literally anything can happen in a day; a traffic accident, an escaped animal, a tornado, lions, tigers and bears, or who knows, you might even get lucky with a spontaneous Ag day. Your day can change in an instant, and it’s vital you have the puns to keep up with it all, because when you’re not storm hunting or photographing escaped polar bears, you’re likely at your desk making puns.

My first few weeks have gone rather swimmingly, I must admit. The newsroom is an exciting place to be. Everybody here seems to know a little somethin’ somethin’ about most everything, and honestly I spend a lot of time fantasising about a potential pub quiz team, maybe the Journalynxes or Fairfoxes… We’ll see. Perhaps I’ll float the idea in a couple more weeks, once my trial period is over and it’s harder to fire me. Wish me luck.

25

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THE

WRITE WAY The Strategy Behind a Great Literature Review Samira Kakh, AUT Doctoral Candidate, School of Language and Culture How often do you see this sentence: “You are expected to review a wide range of the literature on a topic”?

Have you ever asked yourself questions like: “Why literature?”, “What does ‘a wide range’ mean?”, and “How does a lecturer determine that I have read a wide range of literature on a topic?”

Even if you haven’t seen that sentence, and you haven’t asked yourself those questions, this article may be helpful for you. University, eventually, drags you into the tornado of literature reviews at some point in your student life. So, stay with us!

First, let’s talk about the word literature.

You may probably know that sometimes context determines the meaning of words. And, literature is one of those words. Generally, the word literature means the written works of famous writers, like William Shakespeare. But at university, most often, literature includes current knowledge about a particular topic. Typical types of literature are books and journal articles.

A literature review is a process. During this process we should read literature for the sake of understanding what is known about a particular topic. Then, we should write what we have read.

Now, what is a critical literature review?

Some may think that a literature review is a process of gathering information about a topic and re-writing it. Nah! A literature review is an evaluation of the literature. We let anybody reading our literature know: 1) what we already know about a topic and 2) what we still need to know! That is why lecturers highlight the word “critical” when we are supposed to do a literature review. Critical is a reminder that says: a literature review is NOT a general survey of something. A literature review is critical of what is known.

If I could give you one and only one literature review hint, I would say: have a few questions in mind first.

If we always have some questions, we will find the questions will help us in ways we never realized they would! They help us to find relevant literature, as well as help us organize our literature review.

Most often, the first questions are seeking definitions. We should search the literature to see how different authors have defined the terms related to our topic. So, to answer these questions, we need to search for literature that helps us with definitions. Then we need to think about our topic. A topic may be studied from different aspects. These aspects may be given to us by our lecturers or not.

If we are given the aspects, the question would be: what are different authors’ views on that specific aspect of the topic? Then, we should search for different views.

If we are not given the aspects, the question would be: what are the

different aspects of the topic? Then, we should search for different aspects.

After finding the different aspects of the topic, we may ask: what are different authors’ views on each aspect? Then, we should search for different views.

To organize the literature, we may group authors’ views under the relevant aspect. The next question that pops in mind then would be: why are there similarities and differences between authors’ views? Here we need to compare and contrast those views and the reasons that led to those views (e.g., different methodologies, limitations, etc.).

For students doing a research degree, their literature review will help them decide what they want to investigate.

They should expect the findings of their research to resolve some of the existing disagreements.

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A

VOGUE

STYLE SHOOT Shivan

The prevailing fashion, obsession, rage and style - all things that embody Vogue. This week, it was our aim to capture all things Vogue.

It was a cloudy day, but as usual this would change in about five minutes, then change back to cloudy again, thanks to Auckland’s un-predictableness. Behind every shoot there are weeks’ worth of preparation, though with every outdoor shoot, weather is something you can’t prepare for.

Before the day of the shoot, there was at least two to three weeks of preparation, and all this preparation has to be perfect to achieve that perfect shot. I always start with the concept and look of the shoot I am looking to achieve. I had a few ideas being thrown around in my head, I wanted an androgynous look that was black and white. I had this image of an 80s woman in a full suit, but wanted to make her a little more feminine, so I decided to throw a pinstripe skirt over the pants. After I knew the sort of look I was going for and a rough image of the clothes I wanted to style for

the shoot, I hunted for the perfect model to bring this vision of mine to life.

After contacting the modelling agency, they send me over a selection of models to choose from.

Our model, Olivia, was perfect for the shoot and the vision I had.

I usually look for a model with a strong face to bring a unique form of beauty to every shoot. Olivia, even though she may be petit, she had confidence and knew how to model clothes even if they were 5 sizes too big for her. Once the model was booked, it was time to book A Young, a very talented makeup artist, and find the clothes to fit my vision.

Paper Bag Princess is one my favourite vintage boutiques to organise a great look for my shoots, they always have one-of-a-kind vintage pieces which makes the styling even more exciting. It was the sixth of September, just coming off a week of intense drinking at New Zealand Fashion Week, and I couldn’t have been more pumped for this shoot.

Behind the scenes of a fashion editorial shoot is not all what it seems, unless you are in a big budget shoot. Usually shoots involve only a few people, there are no assistants, no large banquets of food and alcohol, no celebrity masseuse on hand, or any little spoilt dogs running around. Shoots involve a few main aspects: the photographer, the model, the stylist, and the hair & makeup artist. This shoot, there were only three people present, me [the photographer and stylist], Oliva [the model] and A Young [the hair and makeup artist].

Usually the hair and makeup take a large portion of the shoot at the beginning, as we have to ensure we match the perfect look with the perfect hair and makeup styling.

Next is the shoot itself, there are many things to look for, i.e. the lighting, the positions, the angles, the frames. I won’t bore you with the technical, but I will show the finished produced. Our Vogueinspired look.

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17.

WHAT'S GOOD? IMAGINE DRAGONS

Upon arrival, I immediately realised I was a relatively old audience member. I didn’t see a single beer all night, I was a head taller than 99 percent of the room, and directly behind me stood two girls who can’t have been older than 12. I felt bad initially, but realised they wouldn’t have seen shit no matter who they stood behind. Gig tip: if you’re four feet tall, make sure your mum buys you a bloody seat.

Anywho, as a band, them Dragons were incredibly tight. Although I suspect backing tracks assisted in their sound somewhat, their extensive touring experience shows, and their harmonies, tribal drumming jams and relaxed professionalism were all on point.

Top tunes for the night for me were singalong It’s Time, the rousing stomp of I Bet My Life, a cut back cover of Forever Young and of course their biggest hit Radioactive, which went off. Singer, Dan Reynolds, earned some brownie points for sharing his love for Kiwis, and fans were chuffed to hear the music video for new single, Roots, was filmed in Auckland over the last few days.

Vector Arena

Reviewed by Matthew Cattin Not a band I would usually make an effort to see, Imagine Dragons is the type I would watch at a festival if there were no clashes. However, my lovely homestay bought me a ticket for being the best host brother around (she’s spot on in her assessment too), and the more I listened to their tunes, the more my excitement grew.

WEST SIDE (SEASON 1)

Created by Rachel Lang, James Griffin Starring Antonia Prebble, David de Lautour, Daniel Musgrove

Reviewed by Amelia Petrovich To ease the blow of winter, James Griffin (creator of the massively popular Kiwi show, Outrageous Fortune) released the long anticipated first season of Westside to spice up our Sunday nights. Westside is a six-part series acting as a prelude to Outrageous Fortune, tracking the lives of Rita and Ted West one year at a time as they deal with the drama that is a life of a career criminal in the West Auckland of the 70s.

The crowd - probably due to the fact the average age was 16 - was a bit tame for my liking. It’s hard to let loose when you’re worried about moshing a 12-year-old to death. But it was nice to see youngsters absolutely losing their shit over what I suspect may have been their first gig and their favourite band. And that’s what it’s all about. They may not be my usual jam, but jam their hearts out they did, and I had a fabulous time. Imagine that.

I thought Westside was pretty flipping great. For one thing, the casting was basically perfect, with Antonia Prebble and David de Lautour playing the West family founders. Prebble is the most perfect bogan goddess I’ve ever seen, the natural choice for Rita as her Outrageous Fortune character, Loretta, is frequently referred to as the spitting image of her notorious grandmother. De Lautour, too, is absolutely stunning, giving fans of the Outrageous Fortune/Westside franchise a glimpse of the canny, alpha-type Ted West of old, and 100 percent nailing the trademark cacklelaugh of Frank Witten’s Outrageous Fortune Ted portrayal. Kudos to Esther Stephens too, playing the delightfully bitchy Ngaire Munro and looking uncannily like her older Outrageous Fortune counterpart, Elizabeth Hawthorne.

Westside itself is every bit as engaging and humorous as you’d expect from the team that delivered Outrageous Fortune, enlightening for fans like me who have always wondered about the intricate details of the infamous West family’s beginnings.

For people familiar with Outrageous Fortune, the series is even at times a little ‘meta’ or self-referential (one scene depicts Rita West having a song written for her, impromptu-style, by a young admirer, the tune turning out to be Gutter Black by Hello Sailor, Outrageous Fortune’s theme song).

Perhaps if I wasn’t so familiar with and super enthusiastic about Outrageous Fortune, Westside may have been less resonant.

But, all things considered, I reckon Westside is still a quality New Zealand series with some stellar talent and enthralling storylines.

The finale leaves a lot of drama unresolved, so thank God there seems to be a Season Two on the way; I look forward to it.

THE RIOT CLUB

The primary players are Miles (Irons) and Alistair (Claflin), both aristocratic first year students at Oxford who face off in weekly debates. The two are eyed up by senior members of the Riot Club, a group of fellow rich kids looking to indulge in their rebellious urges before entering a life of politics. The film follows the two as they go through initiation and end up facing off over an outlandish dinner in a countryside pub, where their differing political views reach boiling point.

The movie has a stellar cast, with Irons a stand out as the conflicted, more liberal Miles. Holliday Grainger does the best with her limited role as his lower-class girlfriend, while Sam Claflin has a rare villainous turn as the cold Alistair.

Directed by Lone Scherfig Starring Max Irons, Sam Claflin, Holliday Grainger

Reviewed by Ethan Sills With a number of political changes going on around the world, it seems quite timely to talk about The Riot Club. Based on the play Posh, the movie debates political ideologies, using the back drop of an elite Oxford boy’s club as the setting.

SO YOU’VE BEEN PUBLICLY SHAMED

The only issue with having so much talent is that few people really get a chance to shine. Most of the club are basically just loud, posh and horny in varying degrees with little other unique qualities. The actors are all very committed to their roles and seem to be having fun, but it ends up making them all fairly indistinguishable from each other.

Riot Club also suffers by thinking it is cleverer and more insightful than it actually is. It is a fun look at privilege and makes some points on class difference, but it mostly just treads quite familiar ground. Despite some witty moments and showy performances, Riot Club never develops its plot or cast enough to make any insightful political points.

The book details some of the biggest cases of ‘public shaming’ from the past few years. These include Justine Sacco, whose attempted joke about AIDS on Twitter saw her life destroyed within hours. Adria Richards shamed two men who made jokes during a news conference, and was subsequently shamed by 4chan members. Ronson unpacks what happened to these people and casts a light on the effects, getting the subjects views on what happened to them.

Ronson is a talented writer, who manages to make sense of some of these cases and write about them in an easily digestible way. He covers a wide range of people and has a knack for capturing who a person is within a few hundred words. Each ‘character’ comes to life, and every story is so different, you don’t get bored trudging through chapter after chapter of ruined lives.

Written by Jon Ronson

Reviewed by Ethan Sills A few decades ago, newspapers and journalists could end lives with just a few sentences. Now, with the rise of social media, anyone with a Twitter account can bring down whoever they choose to, whether it is right or wrong. In his new book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, British author and journalist, Jon Ronson, has examined just what power these people have in this new online era.

The book could be, at times, a tad too light. I would have preferred a more critical take on some of the case studies, as Ronson took too much of a back seat, examinational take on several cases. I also had issue with the links he came up with to move from one chapter to the next: it all felt too breezy for my liking, though the chapters generally opened in a way that really draws you in.

An at times too breezy read, Ronson’s latest still tells a convincing and intriguing story about how easily lives can be ruined, and makes for a fascinating read.

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KIDS BEHIND THINGS

THE ONLY CHOCOL ATE CAKE RECIPE YOU WILL EVER NEED Amelia Petrovich

So this is a semi-fancy Viennese cake that my Mum was always really amazing at making back home. It was invented by a guy named Franz Sacher for Prince Wenzel von Metternich apparently, and my family aren’t Austrian at all but we all love this cake so damn much no one ever makes any other kind of chocolate cake anymore. I’m not sure how official our recipe is, but I literally went to Vienna and had a slice at the café where it was invented and figured this version was better.

So yeah, definitely hit this one up.

INGREDIENTS • 100gm dark chocolate (Cadbury’s Energy chocolate in the red packet works the best) • 1 cup water • 125gm softened butter • 1 ¼ cups of brown sugar (but the soft, powdery brown sugar rather than the stuff that feels like gravel) • 3 eggs • 1 cup self-raising flour • ¼ cup cocoa • ½ cup almond meal (sounds fancy, but is surprisingly cheap) • Jam, raspberry or apricot (this inclusion was always hotly contested.

Apricot was Mum’s thing, but I feel like raspberry is the real MVP) ICING • 200gm dark chocolate • 150ml cream

1) Grease a deep round cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Preheat your oven to 160C.

Cool on cake rack for a wee while and try not to give in and eat it sans icing.

2) Chop up the dark chocolate and then combine it with the water in a saucepan. Heat until melted.

5) When the cake has cooled, cut it in half horizontally with a serrated knife. Warm your jam in the microwave so it’s a little runny and spread over the base. Replace the top layer.

3) Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer. Beat in eggs one at a time, if the mixture looks curdled at this stage don’t panicit’s actually fine. Add almond meal. Sift in flour small amounts at a time and mix in with spatula, alternating with chocolate mixture until all is combined.

6) Pop a bit of water in a saucepan and sit a bowl with the rest of the chocolate and cream on top. Stir until melted, then take the bowl off the heat and allow it to cool until it starts to thicken. Spread over top and sides of cake and let it set.

4) Pour into prepared tin and bake about 1 hour 10mins or until set.

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S

PUZ ZLE

BEHIND THE SCENES: FILM

Blooper

Microphone

Dubbing

Rotoscoping

Reel

Greenscreen

Wilhelm

Easter Egg

Post Production

Cameo

Wrap

Blocking

Story Board

Cinematographer

Prompter

Timecode

Dolly

Compositing

Foley

Set

Circle all the words in the wordfind, tear this page out & pop it into the box on the side of the red debate stands, and you could win this motherflippin’ sweet prize:

Name:

Email:

TWO free Burger King cheeseburger vouchers [222 Queen Street] Yipee!

YOUR AUT OUTLOOK CALENDAR HAS GONE NEXT LEVEL! Last year we scrapped the old Webmail system and brought you Office 365 Outlook.

Your Outlook calendar will now: • Automatically sync your academic timetable • Alert you when a class, room or time has been changed • Allow you to sync this information to all your devices – smart-phones, tablets and laptops If you would like to know more about your Office 365 calendar please see our knowledge base http://aut.ac/calendarSYNC or call the Student Service Desk on 921 9888, selecting option 4.

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