Massive Magazine Volume 01 Issue 02

MARCH 2012 - ISSUE 02

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CONTENTS ISSUE 2 “If you knew what I knew, you wouldn’t just let it go,” she said fighting back the tears that wavered her steely resolve that was so prominent up to this point. They were not tears of weakness – far from it – but at one hour and eight seconds into the interview, frustration, exhaustion and perhaps a hint of desperation finally manifested. Her voice returned normal at one hour and 20 seconds and she added: “I just want someone to take it seriously. I just want people to get it. Get it, and understand.”

She talks about fracking. She talks about water. She talks about safety. She talks about resource consent, mining companies, contaminated water, sick locals, potential pay offs and moratoriums. She talks about Stratford’s, and New Zealand’s, future.

She talks a lot. But not enough people are listening.

The story really boils down to context and is an issue of authority and permission. Who has permission to make decisions regarding mining, and mining practices, and disposal of waste? Who has the authority to deem that one person’s complaints are valid and another’s invalid? Should progress and the search of money take priority over human health?

We had tried to bring this story for the first edition of MASSIVE but were unable to finish it off. So we headed to New Plymouth to chase the story down, old school, so to speak. The trip was an interesting, and eye-opening experience.

Though at first glance the article that is taking a dominating place in this issue may appear out of place for a university publication, I felt that the exploration of the topic was something New Zealanders should consider. MASSIVE is in a unique position because it can communicate to large numbers of university students who are forward thinkers and the future leaders of the country. I encourage you to read through the article, and let us know what you think.

Enjoy..

Matt Shand, MASSIVE editor

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REGULARS 02. NEWS 05. LETTERS 06. DEBATE 35. MASSIVE CROSSWORD 36. COLUMNS 38. REVIEWS 40. CLASSIFIEDS

FEATURES 07. FRACKING 14. THE VSM FACTOR: BACKWARD STEP, 14. OR CHANCE FOR CHANGE? 16. PLACEMENT PURGATORY: A NURSE’S TALE 18. TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL 21. MY HISTORY OF TUPPERWARE: A BRIEF BUT INTENSE AFFAIR 26. REVIVING AND REPRESENTING TRUE CHINESE CULTURE 28. PHOTOSHOOT: LIFE AFTER NZ’S NEXT TOP MODEL 32. SKATING ON THE EDGE

EDITOR Matt Shand editor@massivemagazine.org.nz 04 801 5799 ext 62068 DESIGN, LAYOUT & ART DIRECTION Cameron Cornelius allstylenotalent@gmail.com 04 801 5799 ext 62064 ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP MANAGER advertising@mawsa.org.nz 04 801 5799 ext 62069

CONTRIBUTORS

Matt Shand, Emma Edwards, Sidah Russell, Jamie Christian Desplace, Phillipa Clarke, Jimmy Jansen, Angela Shaw, Shelley Venning, Sarah Burton, Harley Nicholas, Olivia Jordan, Dayma Otene, Paul Berrington, Sam Bonney, Daniel Hargreaves, Cameron Cornelius, Hannah Douglas, Jessica Roden, Olivia Marsden, Natasha Judson, Georgia Forrester, Luke Fisher, Angela McGuigan, Yvette Morrisey, Micheal Smythe, Murray Kirk, John Case, Jessica Frank, Nigel Green, Stephan Van Heerden, Jonathan McDonald, Alistair Radley

PUBLISHER

Wellington Edition ISSN 2253-3133 (Print) ISSN 2253-3141 (Online)

Manawatu Edition ISSN 2253-315X (Print) ISSN 2253-3168 (Online)

Albany Edition ISSN 2253-3176 (Print) ISSN 2253-3184 (Online)

This publication uses vegetable based inks and environmentally responsible papers. The document is printed throughout on SUMO Laser, which is FSC® certified and from responsible and Well Managed Forests, manufactured under ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems. MASSIVE magazine is committed to reducing its environmental footprint.

NEWS MASSIVE FSC CERTIFIED

If we are being honest, print media and deforestation do have a correlation. At MASSIVE we have done our best to ensure that our impact on the environment is as limited as it can be. That new logo on the cover page shows that we use FSC Certified. That stands for Forest Stewardship Certified.

The FSC Principles and Criteria (P&C) describe how forests can be managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations.

Developed through a strong, multi-stakeholder process, they include managerial aspects as well as environmental and social requirements.

Emma Edwards

MASSEY RECEIVES HIGH RATINGS

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assey University has received a five star rating in five categories of educational standards from the educational benchmarking agency, Quacquarelli Symonds - despite an abysmal report received last year by The Tertiary Education Commission.

Quacquarelli Symonds is an international evaluation system that ranks a university against a set of eight standards; Research, Graduate Employability, Teaching, Innovation, Infrastructure, Engagement and Internationalisation. This year, Massey University received five QS Stars for five categories - with four QS Stars overall.

Massey University also attained high scores in several areas, including, student satisfaction with teaching, overall student satisfaction, sporting facilities, medical facilities, library facilities, number of international academic staff members, patents registered and spin-off companies established.

According to Quacquarelli Sy02

monds, four stars indicate that a university is “highly international, demonstrating excellence in both research and teaching, and the university provides an excellent environment for students and faculty”.

Assistant Vice Chancellor, Professor Ingrid Day reportedly commissioned the glowing report and said to Fairfax reporters that the four stars was a “strong first-up result.”

Professor Day continued to say that the qualities of the staff, facilities, support systems and the people behind them are the reason for the high student satisfaction and large quantity of awards presented to Massey University each year The QS Stars have come as a stark contrast to the controversial ratings Massey University received last year from The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), where Massey University was the lowest ranking University in the four categories judged by TEC – successful completion of courses, completion of qualifications, stu-

dent progression to higher level of study and students remained in study.

Two large factors have hindered Massey University in achieving higher respect in TEC’s eyes – the first is how the ranking is conducted. Unlike the QS stars, TEC compares universities against each other, rather than as separate education facilities.

The second is that in comparison to Massey University’s tertiary rivals, Massey holds a high proportion of distance learners.

Last year, 68 per cent of all distance learners in New Zealand were enrolled at Massey, representing 14,100 of Massey’s 31,800 students.

Massey University staff continue to maintain their belief that distance learning is one of it’s leading qualities, providing flexible learning options to thousands of students if the university was judged only by it’s full time students, the completion rates would indicate a higher standard, one directly in line with other universities in New Zealand

COVER ARTIST – NEERACHAR SOPHOL This month’s cover art was created by Wellington Based artist, 3D animator, and digital matte painter, Neerachar Sophol.

This piece is designed to show the effect of mining on the environment and waters involvement in such activities. As well as showing the obvious deforestation that can occur when mining operations take place. The image also shows the troubled relationship between water. This is a major part of our main story this month on hydraulic fracturing.

The trees symbolise nature in this case, all share the same water source. The waste water and run off may be contaminating the stream that is shared by the trees. This shows the further damage mining can cause which may not be as visual as first thought.

MASSIVE would like to thank Neerachar for taking time out of her schedule to produce a stunning piece of art work to accompany the story, especially given the short notice.Read more about the article the image pertains to on page 7.

If you are interested in creating cover art for MASSIVE Magazine please email: editor@massivemagazine.org.nz

VOLUNTEER EXPO

Sidah Russell

OUOTE OF THE YEAR COMPETITIION LAUNCH

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assey University is asking New Zealanders to stop “internalising a complicated situation” and start nominating as it launches a search to find the New Zealand quote of 2012.

Following the success of last year’s Top Ten Memorable Quotes of the Year competition, the University is inviting both students and the general public to nominate any interesting oneliners they hear throughout the year. Quotes can come from a variety of sources, including movies, advertising, speeches, comedy, or news reports. Massey University Speech Writing lecturer Dr Heather Kavan says entries can be rousing, amusing, or memorable. “It’s a people’s choice vote, so we’re looking for quotes that are appealing. Some people were surprised Nek Minnit was not in the top ten last year, but others were relieved.”

Last year the quote – “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head” – from the New Zealand Transport Authority’s anti drink-drive television advert was voted top.

Another quote from the same advert – “You know I can’t grab your ghost chips!” – was the second most popular. In election year, it was no surprise that comments from MPs took third and fourth place, with Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker’s poignant post-earthquake speech to the www.massivemagazine.org.nz

Christchurch City Council in fifth place. Dr Kavan says, as a lecturer in speechwriting, she is fascinated by the power of language and is always looking for great oneliners. “A good one-liner is brief, witty, and original,” she says. “We recognise a great one because we want to say it ourselves.”

There is a $100 prize for the first person to nominate the winning quote, which will be decided by public vote from a shortlist in December. To nominate a quote, visit https://masseyuni.wufoo. eu/forms/2012-quote-of-theyear-nomination and fill out the online form. Nominated quotes and other updates will be posted on Massey’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/masseyuniversity until nominations close on December 1.

A shortlist of the best 10 quotes will be decided by a panel of experts, including Massey University Vice-Chancellor the Hon Steve Maharey. The shortlist will then be opened to public vote for three weeks, with the Quote of the Year announced on December 21.

Develop your skills, explore possible roles, make a positive difference, enhance your CV, make useful contacts, test out career ideas. Volunteering offers you all this and more Come and talk to a wide variety of organisations looking for volunteers WELLINGTON CAMPUS | WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH THE PYRAMID | 11am – 2pm Contact Paul Fitzmaurice | P.R.Fitzmaurice@massey.ac.nz

ALBANY CAMPUS | WEDNESDAY 9 MAY ATRIUM LOUNGE | ROUND ROOM | 12pm – 2pm Contact Trish Fleetwood | P.C.Fleetwood@massey.ac.nz

MANAWATU CAMPUS | WEDNESDAY 8 AUGUST THE DINING HALL | 12pm – 2pm Contact John Ross | J.A.Ross@massey.ac.nz

Check out the “View All Events” on CareerHub for more information

0800 MASSEY CAREERHUB.MASSEY.AC.NZ

“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.” Actor Darcey-Ray Flavell in the NZTA drink-driving ad where a young man is pondering all the arguments for and against telling his friend not to drive.”

Massey University’s quote of the year for 2011 winner

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NEWS WIN A ZOMBIE-FYING EXPERIENCE!!!

Alice volunteering in Combodia

MASSIVE Magazine is giving you, and three friends, the chance to be chased through an obstacle course while avoiding hordes of zombies in a truly one-of-a-kind experience, Run For Your Freakn Life.

The event takes place in Auckland on April 15 and involves traversing difficult terrain and obstacles while terrifying zombie actors ambush you and vie to take away your brains (well flags). Prizes are on offer for people who make it through the course and it should be the perfect way to live out those Zombie survivor fantasies.

To enter: email an answer to the following question. Where would you hole up in case of a zombie outbreak, and why.

Keep answers under 50 words and email your answer to competitions@massivemagazine. org.nz. The best entry will be given the passes.

For more information about the event head to: runforyourfreaknlife.com

OVERLANDER TICKET WINNERS

Congratulations to: Robert Handcock Louise Dixon Rawa Karetai Lin Ong Soon Kim Ho Marie Cleland Eowyn Turk Teresa lam Elena Guirmaraes Candace Hoover You will cruise the country in style having each won an Overlander Flexi Ticket thanks to Kiwi Rail Scenic Journeys.

You should have received an email detailing how to claim your prize.

Email: competitions@massivemagazine.org.nz with any questions.

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Emma Edwards

VOLUNTEER EXPO HEADS TO MASSEY

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or most students, finding extra time between study, lectures, part-time work and other commitments can be difficult, but Massey University Career Development Adviser, Paul Fitzmaurice says that students should try to invest some of their free time to get involved with Volunteering. With the Massey Volunteer Expo coming up, Mr Fitzmaurice encourages students to go along and sign up to volunteer.

This year’s Volunteer Expo, which for the first time, will be held on all three Massey Campuses, involves a total of 30 organizations that are on the lookout for students eager to help and get some valuable work experience.

Some of the organizations taking part in the expo include the SPCA, Red Cross, Cancer Society, CanTeen and World Vision.

Students that decide to volunteer for these organizations will get the opportunity to take part in a range of work, from feeding animals, to collecting donations, to planning events and fundraisers.

Mr Fitzmaurice, who is organizing the expo, hopes that the event will promote volunteer-

ing as a way for students to both contribute to the community and gain some essential skills for the workplace. He hopes that through the expo, students will learn that “volunteering can contribute to your individual employability and make a contribution to society at the same time.”

Mr Fitzmaurice also says that for students, “volunteering is a useful way of gaining work experience in a marketplace where finding a paid position is not always easy.” He says that volunteering can help a student gain some of the experience they may need before they can get a job in their chosen field.

Volunteer work can also look especially impressive on your C.V and can be an advantage when seeking full-time employment post-study, Mr Fitzmaurice adds.

“Becoming a volunteer says a lot about your character and employers are increasingly interested in your character qualities and attitudes as they are about your skills. Employers want to hire people who are pro-active and are prepared to put the time into something they believe in.”

Another benefit of volunteer-

ing is that voluntary work can be a relatively ‘low risk,” says Mr Fitzmaurice. He explains that by low risk, he means that students can “test out career ideas, build a network of contacts, explore different sectors, gain greater insight into their personal likes and dislikes and apply their learning to ‘real world’ situations.” Basically, volunteer work allows students to test out aspects of a job without being bound to it with an employment contract.

Volunteering can also be extremely rewarding, according to former Massey University student, Alice Young Drew. Alice spent three and a half months in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, volunteering for the Vulnerable Children’s Association Organisation, a non for profit, non-governmental organization that helps protect and care for children in undeveloped areas.

Alice Young-Drew says that in her time volunteering, she was able to teach children how to wash themselves, brush their teeth and how to speak basic conversational English. She also spent some time building and decorating new classrooms for the children and painting murals on playground walls. “The whole experience was incredibly rewarding; it felt amazing to be making a difference in these children’s lives.” Alice thinks that more students should take up volunteer work and get involved with non for profit organizations like the VCAO. “I think more students should volunteer; it’s all about giving something of yourself for the benefit of others which I think that’s really important. The Massey Volunteer Expo seems like a great opportunity for students to sign up to do just that.”

The Volunteer Expo will be held on at: Wellington: Wednesday 28 March in the Pyramid 11am – 2pm Albany: Wednesday 9 May in the Atrium Lounge 12pm – 2pm Manawatu: Wednesday 8 August in the Dining Hall 12pm - 2pm

LETTERS

LETTERS

Massive magazine welcomes letters of all shapes and sizes, They should preferably be emailed to letters@massivemagazine.org.nz, though they can be dropped into any student association office. The Editor reserves the right to edit, abridge, or just plain bastardise them, and will refuse any that are in bad taste or defamatory.

Pseudonyms may be used.

LETTER OF THE MONTH

ABORTION AS HOLOCAUST?

One of the things I love about university is how we are encouraged to open our minds, challenge traditional thinking, and create our own opinions. So when a blatant piece of anti-abortion propaganda floated my way in the form of some religious fundamentalists who, it turned out, had to right to be on campus in the first place, I was horrified. The DVD, titled 180, likened women’s choice to have an abortion to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, and made women choosing to terminate unwanted pregnancies seem like cold-blooded murderers comparable to Adolf Hitler.

It then featured some obviously rigged responses to the question “it is okay to kill a baby when…” and then after explaining the inherent evil present in the choice to abort, showed the few prochoice respondents converting to believing in the right to life of unborn babies. When someone questioned the quality of life unwanted children with disabilities would endure, the presenter compared this to the massacre of down-syndrome children that occurred as part of the Holocaust.

This sort of illusionary rhetoric is deeply offensive, affecting to

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students, and has no place within the university campus. The entire cover, which boasts the label “award-winning documentary” (an achievement I find highly doubtful), does not suggest the true content.

It is endorsed by deeply conservative, narrow-minded, judgmental extremists. Notably, these people are overwhelmingly male.

People have the right to their own opinions, and for those who believe in the sanctity of a foetus, that’s fine. But to bombard unsuspecting students with distasteful, grotesque images of dead bodies and living foetuses is contrary to the rights of students to feel safe on campus and negates their freedom to develop educated and informed ways of thinking. To the people who self-righteously indoctrinate developing minds with this kind of assault on free thinking, keep your misinformed beliefs to yourself and keep your rosaries off my ovaries!

Natalie Thorburn, Daniel McGrath, Massey Albany

SLACKTIVISTS UNITE!

KONY 2012 is something that is trending outrageously across the social media sphere, with hundreds of thousands of people (most likely millions by the time this is published) sharing and passing on the message.

I will assume you know what I am talking about and I will also assume that you have taken a stance on the issue at hand. This viral wildfire was set in motion in order to increase the awareness about the issue, bringing to the forefront of peoples’ minds something that would not have previously been spared a thought.

The question begs to be asked though: does raising awareness through the use of social media, where trends rise and fall like the tide and one simply need ‘share’ or ‘like’ or ‘copy-paste’, actually result in greater action?

Other than awareness, are there tangible benefits that result from this exposure?

I would argue that the fact that you can say you are a part of something greater by simply ‘liking’ a page does not achieve

anything, it simply adds to the ‘ewarrior’ persona’s that populate the social media space; the ease at which one can sit behind a screen and say whatever they please. And now, these e-warriors can feel like they achieved something by saying they have ‘done their part’. Has this phenomenon actually made a positive difference orhas it lead to an even further detached society where we pretend to ‘care’ and fulfill that ‘care’ by simply clicking a mouse? Either way, the content of what is being is spread is incredibly important and I mean no disrespect to the cause or its intentions.

It will be interesting to see where this issue is in 1 months time and see how it has evolved or changed or disappeared.

Afronymous

ever you are) of breach of contract and expect to see a flaming / drowning / roasting / abused picture of that book on the facebook page. OR HAVE IT RETURNED SO I CAN DO IT. FFSDUDE

LIKE A PAYRISE

I would like to congratulate and encourage your team on producing a publication that is an absolutely ‘massive’ improvement over its predecessor. It is actually worth reading now.

The new format means that it doesn’t get blown around the bus terminal and is easier to read outside because of the smaller spread.

I believe you will have better luck attracting advertisers as the whole issue is now of a high standard.

Again, well done.

No name supplied

TO THE GUY WHO TOOK ZERO TO HERO THE MIS TEXTBOOK!!!

I met an exchange student from I had plans for that book, and now it is gone. Having taken MIS twice because I hated it so much the first time my brain melted and ran out my ears resulting in a fail pass, and an angry Richard Marks and his lecture being interrupted I was only to eager to walk past mawsa and punt that damn book as far as I could.

I also got a lot of satisfaction from watching how far it had moved as I assumed others were punting it around also. I hope that one day it will be slowly spit roasted, or thrown onto the mawsa BBQ next time they give our free eats, but now it is gone, and after speaking to the walking afro president he seems to think someone was using it as an actual text book.

The letter asked people to destroy to book, I accuse you (who-

the United States recently who spoke to me about his experience with bullying back home in Philadelphia.

He began to talk about his lifestyle of being able to spend countless hours in the playground and shoot hoops in the courts adjacent to school. He used to be picked on a bit by other kids but this was his form of escape, until one day in particular. A couple of guys jumped him and beat him so bad, he felt afraid enough to move from Philadelphia to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Long story short, he had come over to New Zealand to finish his studies with the aim of helping tackle the issue of youth bullying in his, now long time, home of Bel Air. You were an inspiration Will and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

T. Roll

EVERY LETTER WINS! All letters receive a prize courtesy of Massive Magazine. This month its 250 Gram bag of Peoples’ Coffee. Either come to the mawsa office or email: competitions@ massive.org.nz to collect your prize.

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DEBATE

DEBATE

SHOULD THE PRACTICE OF ABORTION BE BANNED WITHIN NEW ZEALAND? ABORTION IS NOT A CRIMINAL ISSUE

TIME TO TALK

Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand

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bortion should not be banned in New Zealand. To the contrary, ALRANZ believes the law should be changed so that abortion is no longer treated as a criminal issue but as a health issue.

A lot of people don’t realise that abortion in New Zealand is governed by the Crimes Act, and is only legal under very limited grounds set out in that act. These are: where continuing the pregnancy poses serious danger to the life or mental health of the mother, cases of severe mental or physical handicap of the fetus, incest, or severe mental subnormality of the mother.

Rape and extreme ages of the girl or woman are not grounds for abortion in New Zealand. To get an abortion, a woman must first get the approval of two specially appointed doctors under one of those grounds and, at the moment, almost all abortions are approved under the mental health ground.

ALRANZ believes this shows that the law, which was passed in 1977 when Parliament had only 4 women MPs (they all opposed it), is outdated, and that abortion needs to be decriminalized (removed from the Crimes Act) to reflect the reality of both women’s needs and what is happening in practice.

We believe the abortion decision should be up to the woman concerned, not the government. Why do MPs get a ‘conscience vote’ on abortion in Parliament but New Zealand women don’t get to exercise their consciences?

It’s a matter of respect for women as moral adults able to make important decisions, and a matter of justice. If you oppose abortion, imposing bans won’t stop women having abortions. When abortion was essentially banned in New Zealand in much of the 1970s, thousands of women traveled to Australia for abortions, or tried it themselves at home or at the hands of dangerous backstreet operators.

What’s more, a recent study published in the medical journal the Lancet showed that abortion rates tend to be higher where abortion is illegal.

The best way to reduce abortion is not to ban it, but to work harder on good sex education and to ease access to contraception. If abortion is banned, those with the means will still have access through trips abroad; those without may try different, more dangerous methods.

Do we really want to live in a country in which all women are forced by the state to continue pregnancies whether they want to or not?

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Amy Blowers and John Fox - ProLife NZ

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bortion is a difficult issue. It can so often feel as if polarising alternatives dominate the debate; as if you are forced to choose between two undesirable alternatives, like dismembered foetuses and women dying in back streets, or upholding the individual over the right to life of the baby.

But behind the rhetoric, and the genuine difficulty of trying to balance these things up, lies some substantial common ground— and some real, and more human, choices.

Some pro-lifers would like to see the law tightened. Some focus on achieving cultural change to promote the value of unborn life. We all agree that abortion is a grave tragedy, that even the 16,630 abortions in 2011 were too many. We are committed to building a society where abortion is unnecessary, and unborn children are respected and protected, by their parents, and by society. We agree on the personhood of the unborn child, as a matter of biology, and an urgent issue of human dignity. We agree abortion hurts too many women. And we agree that by the time the choice is made to terminate a life, society has already failed.

But here’s the thing. Thoughtful pro-choice advocates, while disagreeing with us on the value of the unborn child, can also agree, at least sometimes, with many of these positions. No one thinks abortion is the “best” option. And few are prepared to assign the unborn no moral value at all.So, in the spirit of open debate, we’ve come up with some questions. We’d love to know what you think.

Why is it adoption is so hard? Surely it’s time we got rid of the 1950’s vibe around adoptions, and updated our law to make adoption easier?

Why is it our abortion rate is so high? 98% of abortions are done not for terrible reasons like danger to life, or fetal handicap, but under the vague “danger to mental health” clause--and more disturbingly, according to the Supervisory Committee, many are repeats. We’re a small country. Surely we can do better?

What alternatives to abortion exist, and what can we do to support them? Our nascent crisis pregnancy movement deserves our help. Our welfare and childcare structures need a second look— and the list goes on.

What is the role of the father in pregnancy? How can we encourage men to take responsibility, and both parties to take a less disposable and consumerist attitude to relationships?

What can we, as a society, and as individuals, do, to build a culture which welcomes and respects life, supporting both women and their babies? We aren’t interested in shouting, or talking past each other. It’s time we talked instead.

Claims of water poisoning and sickness as a result the oil industry practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are rife in parts of Taranaki. So what is fracking and how safe is it?

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he water that flows down from Mount Taranaki and through the pristine dairy country that surrounds the tiny settlement of Kapuni is not fit for human consumption. But it’s nothing to do with what’s on the land.

It’s what’s happening below it, and it has locals afraid for their health.

Locals say the Kapuni Stream is contaminated and they are blaming the toxic poisons being used by oil companies in an extraction method that has drawn criticism around the world – hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process in which liquids laced

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FRACKING: THE DEEPER YOU DIG, THE DARKER IT GETS with chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure to force oil to the surface (see diagram on page 9).

They talk about the polluted stream and contaminated ground water and point to a curious cluster of cancer cases. Even the Taranaki District Health Board admits that the death rate from cancer in the province is significantly higher than in the rest of New Zealand.

Secondary school teacher Sarah Roberts says the groundwater in the paddocks around Kapuni which are dotted with oil and gas production platforms, is not safe.

She blames it on poisonous water leaching from unlined pits where it is stored after being used in fracking.

“The groundwater is not safe for drinking, stock use, or irrigation, and is right beside the Kapuni Stream. The groundwater at Kapuni it’s not safe to drink.”

It is also known that diesel has been used by oil companies to help them extract oil from the ground, and that diesel contains a toxic mixture of benzene, toluene, ethuylenzene, and xylenes, which can have serious degenerative effects on the human central nervous system.

GRAPHIC BY CAMERON CORNELIUS

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FEATURE Sarah Roberts tells the story of a woman in Kapuni who wanted to talk to her.

“I went over and she told me that her family is sick. They have kids with tumours, the woman has MS. I told her one of the worst pits is right next to her and she agreed and said that she was sure all of the pits were contaminated. She said it’s like the Ivon Watkins Dow where all they got after all the years of leukaemia was free health care. She said she doesn’t want to go through all of that, through all of the publicity and scrutiny. She told me that the best advice that she could give was to sell my farm, go live by the beach and forget about it.”

Sarah, who locals have dubbed the Erin Brockovich of Taranaki, is far from alone in her fears.

South Taranaki District Councillor Michael Self has a personal cancer story to tell.

“My mother sang for the Kapuni choir.

Half the choir over the last few years have died of cancers. My mother was one of those. They all drank in the area. Over the past five or six years they were just popping off. You start driving down the road past the Kapuni gasworks and you look at the houses and you can reel off the people that have died in recent years.”

Oil companies admit they have previously dumped the fluid used in fracking into unlined earth pits, often without resource consent, and one company admits there are 10 contaminated sites at Kapuni and that the water under them is not fit for stock or irrigation.

Of course no one can prove these illnesses are a result of the fluids used in fracking.

The oil industry maintains that hydraulic fracturing is safe.

But locals say they are not so sure, and ask where the Taranaki Regional Council is in all this …

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racking has become notorious around the globe, rousing environmentalists into a foam-mouthed frenzy and exasperating oil and gas executives in equal measures.

For every claim, there’s a counter claim, for every accusation, there’s a defence, in what has become a tit-for-tat merry-go-round of classic mud-slinging. The infamous American Gasland documentary of 2010, an exposé of the usual so-called corporate halftruths, lies, and cover-ups, simply added fuel to the already raging oil-field-like fires.

Fracking has been banned in France and Bulgaria and there are moratoriums in place in New South Wales, Quebec, South Africa and some US states. There is protest in parts of Europe and in some corners of the UK especially, with recent revelations that the practice was the cause of minor seismic tremors last year.

Fracking has been going on in the US for around 60 years, and 90 percent of their natural gas wells now use the process. There have been major concerns over air pollution and the contamination of groundwater, and in turn drinking water that, some say, is having a detrimental effect on the health of those who live in proximity to the gas wells.

There have been examples of residents holding lighters to running taps causing the water to ignite, and the Environmental Protection Agency has discovered traces of contaminants in water wells across the country.

A New York Times report last year found a number of waste-water wells to be radioactive, and a House of Representatives study of the same year claimed that of 750 compounds used, 680 contained possible carcinogens.

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iwi pro-fracking lobbyists – essentially the oil exploration companies – admit things have sometimes been very poorly handled elsewhere, but they claim to do

“It’s reasonably clear that these … earthquakes are being caused by the disposal-well activities.” - Art McGarr, US Geological Survey

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things properly here and without risk.

David Robinson, the CEO of Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ), a spokesman for the oil and gas companies, says the science on the issue is very clear.

But so too are the arguments from the other side. Yes, there is a lot of science out there that implies fracking is safe, but there is also an incredible amount of data that implies it’s not – some of which is even in the industry’s own reports.

It would be wrong and dangerous to paint the ‘anti-frackers’ as environmental extremists against all forms of this industry, because many aren’t. In fact, most aren’t.

Most of them accept that drilling needs to be done – they just want to know it is being done safely. They want transparency from their politicians and they want honesty from the companies who have set up shop in their back gardens to drill their land.

These are simple and fair requests for rights that have so far been denied them in a system that has some serious flaws, a system that should shame New Zealand into action. During this investigation, MASSIVE discovered that the deeper you dig, the darker it gets…

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ydraulic fracturing exercises have been taking place in Taranaki for around 30 years, but in the past 10 they have become a more regular occurrence, causing some residents to worry about its possible impacts on their land.

In its end-of-year newsletter of 2011, the Taranaki Regional Council says fracking poses little risk to underground aquifers or the environment, and goes on to paraphrase some of the findings of its report of the same year regarding the safety of the practice.

The council’s Director for Resource Management, Fred McLay, is certain of the report’s accuracy,.Hetells me it found no evidence of environmental problems.

David Robinson cemented the report’s, and the council’s reputation, further by saying: “The TRC report looks at the facts in a fair and unbiased way. It’s a quality report, well prepared and thoroughly researched.”

In many ways, it is a thorough report, but only on issues which it chooses to. And besides, few seem to have read it anyway. It appears to take pliability to whole new levels, opening with the following disclaimer: “The hydraulic fracturing and geological information in this report has largely been supplied by oil and gas companies in the region and is believed to be accurate and reliable.”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATT SHAND, ARTCLE EDITED BY MATT SHAND & BRENY WEBLING

So, the oil and gas companies have supplied most of the information for this report and the council trusts them to be honest and forthright in all that they say or do.

The report was peer-reviewed by GNS Science, an independent organisation. This is from their website: “We apply our scientific knowledge from the atomic to the planetary scale to create wealth, protect the environment and improve the safety of people.” So far so good.

Fred McLay says the science and reputation of GNS Science “is beyond question”.

I ask GNS Science for an interview, but before I can pose it a single question, I receive this oddly defensive message from their Communications Manager, John Callan: “There’s a large amount of misinformation about fracking in the blogosphere. It has become a cause-celebre, a bit like cellphone towers and genetic engineering in the 90’s and microwave cooking and Saturday shopping in the 80’s.”

There are people in Taranaki with genuine concerns about the pollution of their land and the degeneration of their health and of their loved ones. Comparing this to Saturday shopping and microwave ovens is somewhat obtuse. And the last time I checked, the jury was still out on cell-phone towers.

Just how independent are GNS Science, and why were they approached to peerreview the regional council’s report? How much do they actually know about hydraulic fracturing?

“We don’t do hydraulic fracturing,” says Dr Rosemary Quinn, GNS’s Head of Petroleum Geoscience. “We do know about www.massivemagazine.org.nz

induced seismicity, we do know a lot about hydrogeology.”

I push her about what exactly this peerreview entailed. “We looked at the report for the scientific content and whether the conclusions reached were supported by the data in the field. We concurred with the conclusions they draw. Our input was as a third body review party to say if the science was reasonable and valid. That was our role.”

It’s great that this is being checked up on, of course, but it’s not the science that is worrying people. It would be fair to assume that because the oil and gas companies are already carrying out the fracking exercises, and succeeding in drawing out the desired fluids, they’re already pretty clued up on the science issue. If the peer-review was simply of the science behind the report, then it was not a full peer review. Who is checking that the work is being carried out safely and efficiently? What is happening to the waste?

Who is checking that it is being stored and disposed of properly? Who is checking the chemicals involved - are they a pollutant to the environment, are they detrimental to people’s health, are they carcinogenic?

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ocal Green Party Branch Convenor Stuart Bramhall says: “Last year Climate Justice Taranaki filed a request under the Official Information Act on chemicals that were used [in fracking] and never got a response. So the Green Party contacted the council and learnt that the regional council didn’t even know what chemicals are being

used.”

It appears that accessing a full and absolute list of the chemicals involved is as challenging as a quest for the Holy Grail.

John Callum adds, “I suspect most staff at GNS Science would struggle to name the companies that undertake fracking in New Zealand.We were not the only peer reviewer of the Taranaki report.”

Okay, so maybe now we’re getting somewhere. Fred McLay: “There was only one peer review of the report – GNS.” Were there or weren’t there other peer reviewers?

GNS’s Rosemary Quinn: “As far as I know, there weren’t.”

What’s going on here? Does anyone know? Surely the council have this all under control? Surely the council are the ones in charge? Surely their authority is absolute and respected by the companies that are renting their land?

Sarah Roberts says: “Tag Oil told me the council don’t know how to do their job.”

It’d be funny if it wasn’t so tragic, wouldn’t it? Well, fasten your seatbelts because it’s about to get a whole lot bumpier.

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he Resource Management Act 1991 provides a useful loophole for councils and companies, in that resource consents must be obtained in order to use natural resources but the public need be notified only if it is considered that the effects upon them be greater than ‘minor’. If the affected person, or persons, feels that they have suffered ‘major’ ill effect then the burden of proof is upon them to take the accused party to 09

FEATURE down is just a different form of hydrocarbon to what is being extracted from underground.

So why stop it?

“The use of diesel in fracking is not a good look,” admits Bernie Napp.

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Jamie Christian Desplace stands in a farm outside on of the mining operations in Taranaki. The flames come from a flare pit burning waste or unwanted material from the drilling.

court at their own cost.

“The guidelines say we’re affected parties,” says Sarah Roberts. “But there’s a clause in there that says the TRC can decide on how to notify consents.

“I found their files that said we were in the effected circle – there was a map showing this – and they told me to go to the oil company.. The oil company told me that they were surprised to hear from me because the council had told them that they didn’t need my signature and the consents had already gone through. My lawyer wrote an official complaint. There was no response.”

Fred McLay: “Some people fail to understand that participation in the RMA process is not decided by whoever shouts loudest or longest but on the basis of effects.”

David Robinson says resource consents are not a popularity contest. “People have to be affected before they’re notified and the effects have to be more than minor.”

So how is the significance of the effect judged? What is ‘more than minor’? Is it simply at the discretion of the council?

Maybe we’ll find some guidelines …

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t was a simple question: “Is the main fluid component of hydraulic fracturing always water?”

“Today and in recent years only water, 10

which forms around 90% of the fracking fluid,” says Bernie Napp, Senior Policy Analysis for Straterra, an industry group that represents the resource and mining sector.

Between 17 December 2001 and 14 October 2005, some 18 fracking operations were carried out by Swift Energy (now owned by Origin Energy NZ Ltd) in South Taranaki.

Of those, 17 were conducted using a dieselbased fluid instead of water – and the diesel accounted for 99% of the mix.

“I had no idea of the scale of that practice,” says Bernie Napp. “The impression delivered to me was that this had occurred just once. Could you send me that report?”

I tell him it’s in the Taranaki Regional Council’s report. “Must re-read the report,” he says.

The report goes on to say: “Hydraulic fracturing undertaken by Swift Energy, from 2001 to 2005, is described in a paper presented to a Society of Petroleum Engineers International conference. The paper concluded fracture treatments using oil­ based fluids produced better hydrocarbon flows than treatments using water-based fluids.”

David Robinson says PEPANZ “only advocates “the use of modern, well-designed fracturing fluids,” but adds that the use of diesel is not as abhorrent as it appears, because what is essentially being pumped

TEX is an acronym that stands for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes and is a very, very nasty mixture of compounds that have serious degenerative effects on the human central nervous system. It cannot be emphasised enough just how toxic this cocktail of poisons is, and it has been banned in the use of fracking in other countries.

It is claimed that fracking fluids used in Taranaki do not contain BTEX, but what is clear is that BTEX is present in diesel. Of that, there is no argument. Therefore, by the council’s own admission, that fracking has been carried out with diesel in the past, they have also consented to allow BTEX to be pumped into the ground. The report also says that the flow-back fluid from the operations will contain BTEX and that those fluids must be stored, treated and disposed of in a correct and responsible manner to ‘avoid adverse environmental effects.’

Adverse environmental effects that they say have never happened...

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oncerns have been raised about the connection between the use of diesel and the increased risk of well blowouts, but Bernie Napp and David Robinson rebuke them. The risk of well blowouts, they say, is minimal, no matter what fluid is injected.

In California, the blowout rate is around 1 in 5200 wells, at the time of writing there have so far been 28 wells fracked in Taranaki.

I ask Fred McLay if there have been any incidents of exploding wells. “In 1995 the Petrocorp Exploration McKee-13 well suffered a blowout. “Environmental monitoring undertaken by the council showed the impact of the local stream took about 18 months to recover.”

Mr Robinson says he is not sure of the exact cause of the well explosion “but there was a discharge into a local stream. Eighteen months after the event, the stream was back to how it was to before the incident.”

Was the stream used for drinking water and/or irrigation purposes? “Not sure, it was 17 years ago.”

Well, that’s okay then, as long as you weren’t drinking the water 17 years ago.

Eighteen months is a pretty long time for a

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATT SHAND, ARTCLE EDITED BY MATT SHAND & BRENY WEBLING

stream to be polluted by anyone’s standards too, especially if we’re talking BTEX. It also goes against the claims made in the council’s report that there have been no adverse environmental effects caused by hydraulic fracturing, but that’s easily manipulated because the report covers only the period from 2000 to 2011.

Both men say this is the only incident that they are aware of.

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arah Roberts andher husband, David Morrison, own a farm in Ngaire, south of Stratford. In 2008 they were awarded the Taranaki Regional Council Environmental Award for Riparian Management and Sustainable Farming, something for which they are rightly very proud. Their farm sits on ripe green countryside, their house surrounded by 64 hectares of dairy pasture and a permanently protected hardwood forest remnant which was protected in 1985 with the region’s 7th, and New Zealand’s 13th, registered Queen Elizabeth II Trust covenant. Three more covenants protecting the land were registered last year and the farm has also been recently nominated for another award.

You don’t have to spend long with this couple to see they are fiercely loyal to their land and passionate in their belief of its sacredness. Their once-clear vista across the plains to Mount Taranaki is obstructed by the massive metal structures of Tag Oil at the nearby Cheal well site. Mrs Roberts has found herself the regional spokesperson for those with worries about fracking.

“Lots of people have said to me on the quiet that they think I’m brave,” she says over a cup of coffee in her dining room. “But nearly everyone around here has husbands, brothers or sons who work in the oil industry so it’s hard for them to stick their neck out. These oil companies like Shell Todd have been in the country for so long that it’s like they are part of the furniture and no one’s scrutinising them.”

What about well blowouts? “Privately, people who work in the industry have told me things that have happened. A guy told me that there was a well blowout which blew diesel all over the guys and all over the field, and no one knew. These guys have been working in the industry for years.”

The previous evening, Sarah and David organised a community meeting in Stratford which they organised, and invited all parties to attend. No representatives from the council, Straterra, PEPANZ or any oil and gas companies are there.

When questions are invited towards the meeting’s end, local resident Fiona Clarke

www.massivemagazine.org.nz

stood up and says there was an existing gas well bored into her property and once “the well exploded and the contents gushed out like a fountain. I wrote down the times and checked the date in order to ask for details of hydraulic fracturing in the area. They wouldn’t give me any information and told me that it must have been due to the age of the well.”

That makes definitely one and possibly at least three known well blowouts out of 28 sites in Taranaki, which doesn’t just quash California’s unenviable record of 1 in 5200, it annihilates it.

It’s an interesting and enlightening evening, and it’s a shame there aren’t others there from the opposing side of the argument to engage in the debate. As it is, it provides an opportunity for many to voice their fears, some of which are well worth noting: “A whistle-blower from an oil and gas company told me that they consider fracking to simply be cheap and nasty,” Teresa Goodman of Climate Justice Taranaki tells the meeting. “If they told the truth, they’d be out of business. He said it’s comparable to putting a molester in charge of an orphanage.”

A Maori lady stands up and tells the crowd her people have been fighting the oil and gas companies for years to no avail – and that they have been “dying from their pollution.”

Ruth Morrison makes an emotional plea for the protection of their region and says the wealth of the companies will look after “two or three generations but if we look after the land it will benefit generations forever”, while another man says he has been asked to sign something but not told it was for hydraulic fracturing.

This form of underhand tactic echoes a claim that Sarah Roberts has previously made: “Tag Oil wanted us to sign Stratford coun-

cil land-use consents for up to 30 wells.

The form to sign was two pages. When we wouldn’t sign and asked for more information, they gave us approximately 250 pages, including a long list of chemicals.”

David Morrison tells the meeting: “The heart of Taranaki has cancer … don’t accept the council is working in your best interests – waiting for someone else to do something is not democracy.”

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he Government’s campaign of ‘fracking is safe’ is very specific,” says South Taranaki District councillor Michael Self.

“They don’t look at what’s going on with the waste, they don’t look at every oil field. The Taranaki Regional Council are giving the oil companies carte-blanche to do what they want.”

The fear is that waste from fracking is not being stored and disposed of properly, something Fred McLay refutes. “[Waste] pits were lined with compacted clay which provides a level of protection for groundwater resources. More recent hydraulic fracturing activity has seen the use of synthetic liners which provide a higher level of protection.”

I ask David Robinson if he can state that all pits in the Taranaki region are now lined.

“No, I don’t know whether they are lined or unlined. I don’t know the answer. I don’t see why they would need to be lined.”

The reason they need to be lined is quite clear – it’s in the regional council’s report. If they’re not lined then there’s a danger that waste chemicals, cancer-causing chemicals, and BTEX could seep into the underground water supply and poison people who have no other choice but to use it.

The STOS report that is getting famously overlooked by all of the pro-lobbyist groups even says: “Many well-sites in the Kapuni area contain a blow-down pit, constructed

“If they told the truth, they’d be out of business; he said it’s comparable to putting a molester in charge of an orphanage.”

- Teresa Goodman, Climate Justice Taranaki.

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FEATURE from the original well-site flare down pit.

The discharge of well fluids to blow-down pits has been occurring without any resource consents. The use of unlined earthen blow-down pits was not industry best practice. Furthermore, there was a high risk of significant adverse environmental effects from their continued use.”

Even the Straterra website says the company recommends all waste be stored in metal tanks. I visited many sites in Taranaki and didn’t see any metal tanks, just wideopen concaved mounds of earth that certainly didn’t look lined in any way and were often near streams.

“I haven’t seen any metal containers. Any garbage from their activities is kept there [the pits],” Michael Self says. “You have a big downpour of rain and it goes into the rivers.”

When I push Fred McLay on the subject again, he tells me the pits are “generally lined with clay and that some operators are now using liners.”

Only “some” operators? But the tragedy is that even if all companies now using lined pits, for many, many years they weren’t and the damage may have already been done.

“One guy from the oil company told me that they were having difficulty in get rid of their drilling fluids,” says Sarah Roberts.

“There was an effluent pond nearby and so they dumped it in there and it overflowed into the local stream. Another guy told me that he was disturbed about how his company was handling the discharge and voiced his concerns and was told that the oil company pays at the front end so that the Taranaki Regional Council doesn’t check at the back. You’re not allowed to burn your green waste in the back yard, but you are allowed to dump hydrocarbon into the water and not be prosecuted. How can they be allowed to do that?”

Waste fluids are even sprayed on to farmland. Bernie Napp says the oil and gas company would approach a landowner. “There are farmers who have had [waste] water sprayed on their pasture. If anything, it acts as a fertiliser. That land will continue as farmland.”

A name that keeps coming up, a name that again is not mentioned in the Taranaki Regional Council’s report is that of Colin Boyd. So I call him to ask what he knows about fracking: “I know nothing about it,” he says. “I have no knowledge about it, I know zero.”

I ask him if he is responsible for the disposal of fluid waste. “Yes, but it’s certainly nothing to do with fracking.”

But the thing is, it is, isn’t it? It brings us back to the Taranaki Regional Council’s report in the sense that it skims over 12

or ignores inconvenient truths. Waste disposal is of huge significance to this issue, maybe even the most significant part of it as improper methods are what lead to the contamination. Does Colin Boyd even know what chemicals he’s spraying on to his land? Has even been trained in the correct disposal techniques?

Colin Boyd is contracted by Tag Oil, so I contact their COO, Drew Cadenhead, to ask for an interview on the matter. He agrees to do so via email. I send the questions but have not received a response.

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ask David Robinson if he is aware of any health or environmental issues that had arisen as a result of fracking. His reply: “Not aware of any health issues and don’t expect there to be. It’s been going on for more than 20 years and it’s extremely well managed by the council. Any produced water is contained, stored and treated appropriately. It is very well controlled – every fracture is performed on a computer model that receives micro-seismic data. It’s a precise science.”

Sarah Roberts has a rather different opinion: “Leaking happened at Cheal A3 and Cheal A4 wells between 2007-2009. No water testing was done. My sister lives out in Cheal and she says that her water quality has changed since they started drilling.

Austral Pacific/Tag Oil have been working on the site for five years. We truck in water for the family but we have no alternative for the cows. As soon as I ask for testing for the chemicals they use when they drill and produce, it gets declined.”

Why was no testing done at the time?

Fred McLay says the council “became aware of the leak and it was decided no sampling needed to be undertaken”.

Why not?

“Cheal A3 and A4 were never subject to hydraulic fracturing. Sampling was undertaken when a local resident expressed concerns about the impacts on water quality and the results of the first round have been published. The next results will be published next week.”

The first results have given the all-clear to the water supply. However, the leaks occurred between 2007 and 2009. It is now 2012, and if contamination had occurred in the meantime we will never know, and unfortunately it’s very bad luck to those who had to use it. The well blowout of 1995 mentioned earlier lead to a stream being contaminated for a whole year and a half.

“A friend of mine talked to me about her worries about the water over near Kapuni,” says Sarah Roberts. “Shell Todd Oil

Services have been using blowdown pits for years, in some cases without consents. The groundwater under many of those unlined pits is over the Ministry’s for Environment criteria for benzene and other chemicals, BTEX chemicals used in fracking. The groundwater is not safe for drinking, stock use or irrigation and is right beside the Kapuni stream. The groundwater at Kapuni is not fit to drink.”

This is no rumour, it is fact. The Kapuni water is not safe and it is not mentioned in the Taranaki Regional Council’s report.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about that,” says David Robinson.

But what he didn’t know was that I had a copy of the Shell Todd Oil Services Ltd Annual Report 2009-2010 for the Maui and Kapuni Production Stations, from which I quoted the following passage: “The groundwater results are attached to this report.

These results indicate that, with the exception of KA-5/10, shallow groundwater below the well-sites is not fit for potable or stock water use. Furthermore, shallow groundwater below KA-8/12/15 and KA-13 does not meet the criteria for irrigation. It is noted that no monitoring of groundwater has been conducted since December 2008.”

I would like to make the point again that this report from Shell Todd, a confession of contamination of groundwater supplies, does not appear in the Taranaki Regional Council’s report. Perhaps because it would spoil their boast of no adverse environmental impacts?

“The contamination is limited to beneath the well-site owned by STOS within industry property,” says Fred McLay. Note he says the contamination “is” limited, not “was” limited. It’s still there. “There are no other parties considered adversely affected at this stage and precautionary monitoring is in place to ensure the case.”

But the report says no monitoring has been done since December 2008.

“The council has experience with the movement of groundwater contamination in shallow aquifers like this,” he says. But hold on. In their report the council doesn’t say there has ever been groundwater contamination so how can they have experience with it? “Containments move very slowly.”

The Shell Todd report shows that there are 10 contaminated sites at Kapuni: “The groundwater monitoring carried out on behalf of STOS in relation to the use of blowdown pits indicates that there is a plume of dissolved phase hydrocarbons in shallow groundwater beneath KA-1/7, KA-4/14, KA6/11, KA-8/12/15 and KA-13 well-sites.”

It’s time for an independent investigation to be carried out at Kapuni. It’s time the council really started to take note of its

PHOTOGRAPHS BYMATT SHAND, ARTCLE EDITED BY MATT SHAND & BRENY WEBLING

The Shell Todd Oil Service Facility in New Plymouth

A peek over the fence at one of the Cheal sites that borders a local farmers property.

One of the many operational gas sites dotted around the New Plymouth farm roads.

residents’ concerns, to listen to their fears.

Sarah Roberts says that when concerns were first raised she knew nothing about fracking and went to see the council. “I had Fred McLay yelling at me telling me I was stupid to go and see the oil companies. But he was the one that told us to see them in the first place.”

Fred McLay says he’s “disgusted and disappointed” in people making comments about his integrity. “I have acted professionally and with integrity throughout my 27 years of service to the Taranaki Regional Council and the Taranaki community.”

But Sarah Roberts is adamant: “Once Fred McLay told me ‘go home and have a glass of wine, don’t worry about it’.”

The Taranaki District Health Board website also says Taranaki has “significantly higher cancer death rates” than the rest of the country.

Of course, this could be coincidence, but many of the other regions that share this unenviable title are also home to oil and gas operations. Surely it is something that requires some kind of proper, independent inquiry? When people’s health is at stake, how can it possibly be worth the risk not to?

Sarah Roberts almost breaks down when I ask her if she feels a certain responsibility for her community, for the fact that people are relying on her to fight these corporate giants. It’s not just taking its toll on her emotionally, but financially as well. She has spent $15,000 from her own savings on this so far.

“Yeah and I take it very seriously. I want www.massivemagazine.org.nz

people to get it. They don’t read all the reports and they don’t know that all this stuff has been happening. There’s a group of women out near Waitara who go to a mother’s group and talk about how many miscarriages they have had between them. They all drink the water. Every report that you touch you find someone who’s not well.”

And so on we go …

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t can seem surreal at times driving through the lush rolling countryside of Taranaki, for as a bend in a narrow backroad straightens then dirty secrets are slowly revealed in the not-so-far distances.

Fires spill upwards as plumes of acrid black smoke slithers serpentine-like from the burning of excess waste and yet even with the knowledge of that unthinkable kindle the streaks of the hypnotic orange flame works its magic. Cows leisurely graze upon thick tufts of the greenest grass against backdrops of towering steel structures that seem to have no place here, and one can’t help but question what cost this will be to this Earth.

“Once the boom is over,” says Climate Justice Taranaki’s Catherine Cheung, “the communities will be left with workers skilled in ways that are no longer useful, with a poisoned environment to try to live off.”

“That’s a new one,” says Michael Self, jolting me from my daydream as we drive past another fenced-off drilling-zone. “They

seem to be popping up all of the time now.”

There’s a sadness in his tone, a sadness for a lost innocence of a land whose only crime was to rest atop a fluid that seems to far too often arouse the worst traits from men.

“These oil companies are like legal party drugs,” laments the South Taranaki District Councillor. “As soon as one shuts down another starts up and you’re left legislating about things when the damage is already done.”

At the tour’s conclusion we take the highway upon which the Shell Todd’s sprawling complex sits among the splendidness of Taranaki’s threatened purity. As we pass he tells me that the road is “littered with cancer victims”.

The councils of Christchurch, Selwyn, and Kaikora have now called on central Government to suspend hydraulic fracturing, until a proper independent investigation is carried out, amid fears of the resulting potential seismic activity and ground contamination that may ensue.

But judging by Energy Minister Phil Heatley’s recent glowing report of the fracking activities in Taranaki, they, too, might have one hell of a fight on their hands. Opponents probably take little comfort from the fact that the polluted sand in which their regional council is burying its head is at least delivering it one mighty dose of toxic karma.

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Students will notice significant changes on campus this year, with Voluntary Student Membership decimating funding for student associations. Phillipa Clarke reports.

THE VSM FACTOR: BACKWARD STEP OR CHANCE FOR CHANGE?

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niversity students have traditionally been automatically enrolled as members of student associations. In the past, students at Massey paid a fee to one of the four student bodies – Mawsa, Musa, ASA, EXMSS – at the start of the year. That money was used by each body to fund services for students.

On top of that, students paid the Student Levy, a compulsory non-tuition fee charged by universities and used to fund other services and renovations around campus. Both costs were bulked into the overall student fees as ‘non tuition’ fees, and were usu-

14

ally paid at the start of the year by StudyLink under the interest-free student loan scheme.

So what’s changed?

In October last year, Parliament passed legislation that brought in Voluntary Student Membership (VSM). Under what is the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Act 2011, students now have to actively pay a membership fee if they want to become a member of any of the four student bodies –Wellington at Massey Students Association, Massey University Students Association (Palmerston North),

Albany Students Association, Extra-Mural Students Association. The fee for Mawsa at the time of the law’s implementation was $165, and is no longer funded by StudyLink.

This means it will have to come out of students’ pockets.

Student associations anticipate a rough time surviving this year because their source of funding cannot be guaranteed.

The direct funding they previously depended on has gone, leaving them debilitated As a result, most universities are opting to fund their student associations, but they are having a difficult time gathering the extra money needed.

Massey held its budget meeting in the month before VSM took effect, meaning the budget for 2012 did not factor in extra funding for student associations. The timing of the legislation has left the associations with no chance to put mechanisms in place to fund themselves. An amendment to the VSM bill which had the intention of directing money to student associations over the course of two years to ease the transition into voluntary membership was defeated.

So where to from here?

Massey University and the four associations are engaged in heavy and ongoing negotiations around a new budget and funding system. The university says “all parties are working hard to reach a conclusion to discussions”, but whatever happens, the associations are going to get significantly less money this year.

One way the university plans to deal with this funding gap is by increasing the Student Levy. For Wellington, the levy has been raised by $165, which is exactly the amount previously charged by the associations to students for membership fees. In some cases, this means students are paying 60 per cent more in levies than in previous years.

It also means students are still paying exactly the same amount in fees that they used to. Students who want to become a member of either of the four Massey associations will have to pay another student membership fee out of their own pocket. As well as this, in the likely case that student unions will get funding for 2012, they will actually be losing services.

When the ACT party proposed the VSM bill, many people who supported it were under the impression it would save them money. Sam Pentecost, in a letter to MASSIVE, said VSM is “like a pay rise.” Practically, this is just not the case. Students are paying the same amount as they always did.

Lisa at the Albany campus says that “this is really an ideological battle between politicians. They were hell-bent on the freedom of association thing rather than making university a better place for students.”

Bridget Chin of Brooklyn summed this up in her letter to MASSIVE: “So we’ll be worse off under VSM. As usual, students are the scapegoats for the idealism of politicians.”

Many services that student associations used to provide will be affected because of the lack of funding caused by VSM. These include the associations’ ability to host events, their student advocacy service and the clubs and societies.

The associations usually pay a fee for their members to access services such as Student Job Search. Access to this website www.massivemagazine.org.nz

“For Wellington, the levy has been raised by $165, which is exactly the amount previously charged by the associations to students for membership fees. In some cases, this means students are paying 60 per cent more in levies than in previous years.”

is now under threat because the Massey associations no longer have the funding to sustain the service.

Orientation Week was affected at all three campuses, with associations saying events “just won’t be as big”.

Mawsa has had to cut positions from its team, and some services, including student representatives and a Manager for Clubs and Societies, cannot exist at all.

Lisa says student associations have been working hard behind the scenes for years. “Staff in student unions do the same amount of work and the same type of work as many university staff members, but are less appreciated and paid less.”

So what’s at stake?

For some students, the loss of services is not the real threat posed by VSM. “Student associations are a crucial layer in between the university and students,” says Duncan Hope, a local student. “They should empower students and act on their behalf.”

Many are concerned that the associations are now answerable to the university’s management team, rather than the students they exist to represent. VSM has given management the purse strings and with them the ability to use funding as a means of control.

The University of Otago has this year set up a board to oversee the content that goes into student media, including the student magazine Critic. The university has exercised its de facto publishing rights of student media because of its agreement to fund Otago University Student Association from the Student Levy.

When asked if something similar could happen at Massey, the university’s Communications Director, James Gardiner, would say only that “talks are continuing. The parties are considering what arrangements

would be appropriate.”

The university and the associations are reassessing their relationship. Previously it was described as a relationship of ‘good faith’, but this looks set to become more formalised.

Currently, the documents that define the relationship is a business contract, and whether the new arrangement will limit or protect student interests remains to be seen.

While there are many challenges ahead, there are potential opportunities as well.

Mawsa President Ben Thorpe says: “VSM has forced us to reassess our role in the university. It can lead to some real positive change.” Time will tell.

In the mean time, it is possible for students to object to paying their Student Services Levy. This fact seems to have been missed by many during the buzz of Orientation and not promoted beyond the Massey website. It may not be as clear cut however as the site states, “If you believe you have extenuating circumstances to appeal the compulsory Student Services Levy then you can complete the Student Service Levy Appeal application form available from any of the three campuses or by downloading one of these forms. You will need to provide evidence to support your application and outline the support you are seeking.”

Exactly what you need to prove is a bit of a mystery, but if enough students fill out the form – possibly to join a student association or just pay an extra weeks rent, will the university get the message that higher fees are just not cricket.

Phillipa Clarke is based on the Wellington Campus and has used Massey University Wellington’s fee information for this article.

To find out more about your campus’s fees head to your student association 15

FEATURE

Jimmy Jansen gives us a glimpse into the unglamorous world of nursing training at Massey University.

PLACEMENT PURGATORY: A NURSE’S TALE

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anvas shoes are a biohazard.

Why? Potential contamination associated with the canvas weave and its ability to harbour pathogens? Not quite. By all means, splatter me in blood, urine, poo, vomit and any other bodily fluids known to man but do not ask me to wear vinyl boat shoes from The Warehouse. When my lecturer suggested such shoes for clinical placement, I laughed out loud. No, a nursing uniform will never feature in a Vogue line-up, but there are some shoes that should never be worn (Kumfs?).

Prior to my first-ever clinical placement, I, being an omnipotent 18-year-old with no retrospective clinical experience, decided that my beautiful navy pants and crisp white tunic would be well matched to a pair of sexy black Keds. Though, in hind16

sight, wearing completely flat-soled canvas shoes to shower old people was a mistake, it seemed the universe really wanted to teach me a lesson for my foolishness.

After shower No 1, regardless of being convinced I had trench-foot, I had to continue the day and move on to patient No 2.

Being a bit on the “old side”, my next patient had enjoyed a cocktail of laxatives the night before to get things going. I didn’t find this out until the damage was done. I must say, her aim was incredible. She made her “deposit” and wrote off my canvas shoes for good. Since then, as grotesque as they are, I am all about the cheap shoes.

+++ As “glamorous” as that sad tale about the destruction of my beautiful Keds (I loved

those shoes) is, nursing isn’t just about cleaning up the vile mess of humanity and being bossed around by oppressive physicians. Fundamentally, the role of a registered nurse is to observe, understand, and accept humanity for what it is.

Since starting a Bachelor of Nursing at Massey University, I have begun to understand what is truly important in life and how nursing intervention can have such a profound effect on a patient. Obviously, the role of a nurse is to offer “holistic care” (a term every nursing student has drilled into them by week 1) by guiding recovery, alleviating suffering, and often easing the pain of dying. While once upon a time being a nurse involved mere cleaning, feeding, wiping, swabbing, and working strictly under the supervision of doctors, they were always the continuous providers of care. But

in modern times, nursing is infinitely more medically autonomous and is now laced with heavy responsibility (not to freak you newbies out). Florence Nightingale, a pioneer in modern nursing, said: “No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this - ‘devoted and obedient.’ This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse.”

While being heavily criticised for adhering to extremely masculine ideals in the world of medicine, Florence Nightingale set forth the development of nursing as a profession. Since her time, professionalism in nursing has exploded, developing from the role of hand maidens, to autonomous professionals and collectively a force to be reckoned with in the hospital environment (I can’t wait!).

+++ Despite being accused of being a professional “bum-wiper”, (by a “colour technician” working in his mother’s salon – what a joke!), nursing as a career choice has opened up the world. Being a bit of a control freak (and a little bit paranoid), the prospect of racking up thousands of dollars of student debt, and coming out with a nonspecific degree with no definite employment was not an option. With the never-ending and ever-increasing supply of sick people (thank-you very much, fast food, alcohol, and cigarettes), nursing seemed like a logical choice.

Admittedly, when I first enrolled, I didn’t understand the importance of nursing, either. I understand now what it is to care for someone else, how to do it professionally, and the power and responsibility given to nurses. Though nurses are still wildly under-appreciated, it is important to remember that people understand with experience. They do not value what they do not know. When they need us, they will appreciate the work we, as nurses, do.

Becoming a nurse is exciting yet unbelievably strenuous. Though nursing students are worked to the bone, the training is practical and diverse. To all of the existing and newly enrolled nursing students across the Massey campuses, keep up the excellent work! And to all the baby nurses about to start, nursing is a tough degree, and clinical, despite being an incredible experience, can be extremely emotionally draining.

left her dark room during this time, asked me to be her Valentine for Valentine’s Day. Though her body was decrepit and failing, her mind was completely together, so coming from her it meant a lot. Of course I accepted. Previously I had asked her why she had not been outside in a wheelchair, to which she replied: “I cannot bear to see the sun. I’m not really part of the living world anymore.” Considering this, I asked her if she would like to go for a walk (roll) to the beach with me to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Although she agreed, she died before I could take her for our Valentine’s stroll.

That old woman, who I would consider one of my closest friends, died having not seen the sun in three years. I was utterly heartbroken. I don’t mind admitting that I cried harder than I ever have.

After her funeral, one of the registered nurses said to me: “It’s okay to cry … the day you stop caring is the day you should take off your badge and stop nursing.”

I use this story as an example to not only illustrate the significance of nursing in the lives of others but to describe how hard it can be. Choosing to be a nurse is accepting that throughout your career you will experience the pain and sadness of death, yet

making it easy for them on their way out is unbelievably rewarding. So, baby nurses, even if your patients die, never undermine your own emotions. Let it get to you. It’s okay.

+++ Again, from our dear nursing mother: “Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.” - Florence Nightingale.

Nursing is a Fine Art of which almost everyone will have access to and benefit from. To the first-year nurses across all the Massey campuses, you have made an excellent choice. Nursing and clinical can be hard work and extremely … trying … so by all means seek support from the colleges, peers, and the student advocates if you need it. Remember – we are not “just nurses.”

We are nurses!

“Nursing isn’t just about cleaning up the vile mess of humanity and being bossed around by oppressive physicians … the role of a registered nurse is to observe, understand, and accept humanity for what it is.”

+++ While working at a retirement village, one of my “old dears”, who had been effectively been bed-bound for three years and had not www.massivemagazine.org.nz

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FEATURE

Angela Shaw finds that the Government’s plan to sell off pieces of the silverware may deliver the right mix for New Zealand’s asset base

TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL

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en years from now, New Zealanders will have improved schools, hospitals, and broadband. Ordinary kiwis will have somewhere safe to invest their hard-earned savings and the four previously state-owned energy companies will be operating more efficiently; perhaps even offering more competitive energy prices to consumers and generating income from overseas investments, without the need for government support.

That’s the picture that’s being painted by Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English through the introduction of a mixed-ownership model for the four state energy companies (Meridian, Genesis,

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Mighty River Power, and Solid Energy) and the sell-down of government shares in Air New Zealand, in which it currently has a 75% stake.

In a recent speech to Victoria University, Finance Minister Bill English said the mixed-ownership model could be summarised as “a significant reduction in debt, together with a fairly neutral impact on the government’s cash flows and operating balances over the forecast period”.

English says mixed ownership is one of a number of initiatives the Government has under way to create a brighter future for New Zealanders. It’s in the mix with: reining-in New Zealand’s borrowing and

remaining ‘fiscally credible’, with debt just below 30 per cent of GDP; delivering a faster return to surplus, allowing earlier repayment of debt; reorganisation, and improved management and investment in government assets (commercial and social); building a more competitive economy through savings and exports (as opposed to borrowing and consumption); managing finances more responsibly ($9m in operating costs saved in the past three budgets).

Mixed-ownership is exactly what it says; there will be more than one owner, instead of the government continuing to own one 100 per cent, in the case of state-owned companies. It is the best way that the cur-

rent Government has identified to free-up capital to invest in other assets needed by New Zealanders.

The alternative is more borrowing of debt from foreign investors, which increases New Zealand’s unattractiveness to other markets that fund our banks (and therefore mortgages), which could in turn increase interest rates.

Other benefits which New Zealanders are told to expect is better performance from the mixed-ownership companies, which will in future operate within industry-specific regulations that protect consumers.

Concerns about the Government’s plans to sell down its ownership in state assets include the belief that New Zealand will experience higher prices for energy and airfares, among other things. Also, that decisionmaking will be taken from New Zealanders and put into the hands of foreign investors who are motivated purely by profit and take that profit offshore.

English says government assets will not reduce overall, once the capital raised has been reinvested in new assets such as schools, hospitals, and faster broadband.

Labour is disputing the claims that the mixed model will benefit New Zealanders, and argues that we have already experienced the downside to selling off assets through the sale of Telecom and Contact Energy.

Labour says the sale of Telecom sale brought higher prices, and that 65 per cent ($100m in 2011) of Contact’s dividends go overseas, despite the vision that the majority would stay kiwi-owned.

Some of the companies privatised have spent time on the Stock Exchange (NZX) and that five of the privatised companies today “make up over a third of the market capitalisation of the NZX50”.

The report also points out that the public has a rather negative perception that seems to be based on concerns of selling assets too cheaply; that a small number of people MASSIVE ran a poll on student opinion asking, whether people thought asset sales will be beneficial to New Zealand overall.

The results came in as a resounding no.

Perhaps this is an issue that will cause controversy within the New Zealand voting public, only time will tell.

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ew Zealand governments have privatised many other companies in addition to Telecom and Contact over the past 20 years or so, including: Ports of Auckland, Bank of New Zealand, Air New Zealand, Auckland International Airport, TranzRail, TrustPower, and Forestry Corporation.

Last December, a report to Treasury entitled ‘Short History of Post-Privatisation in New Zealand’ summarised New Zealand’s experience with different types and levels of privatisation, and found varying levels of commercial success were experienced which, it says, was predictable in a competitive marketplace.

Regardless of popular belief, governments did not consistently receive poor prices for these asset sales, although the somewhat “light-handed regulation was rather optimistic”, referencing the telecommunications sector.

The privatisation of Air New Zealand and BNZ has allowed some transfer of skills overseas, but this is more likely due to competitive pressure than privatisation.

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make a lot of money; and that privatised companies under-invest in necessary infrastructure.

Not all of these beliefs are founded on the actual outcomes of privatisation, the report says.

Overall, early privatisation did achieve most of its goals: greater level of efficiency was achieved in the companies, risk on the government balance sheet was reduced, and privatisation has made a substantial

contribution to New Zealand’s capital markets and repaid debt.

It did not, however, reduce the requirement for governments to bail out companies (Air New Zealand, BNZ and rail) when times were tough, due to the significant impact these companies had on the lives of New Zealanders.

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he present Government is making changes to legislation to accommodate the transfer of the state-owned companies into partial privatisation, moving them from within the SOE Act and positioning them within the Public Finance Act. These changes are said to provide protection for New Zealanders through controls that ensure the Crown retains 51% of shareholding and that shareholdings to other parties will be limited to a maximum of 10%.

These changes have brought about concerns and controversy for Maori – that Government will remove Section 9 of the State Owned Enterprises Act, which requires the Crown to act in a manner that is consistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

This has likely been settled, with the Government recently reporting its intention to include a provision in new legislation that reflects the concepts of Section 9 of the SOE Act, following the 10 hui consultation exercise with Maori.

Maori Party leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples say they are “cautiously optimistic” following consultation with the Government.

Much of the information about the proposed mixed-ownership model in the public arena is reasonably accessible and digestible for most people, who are interested in taking more than a cursory glance at what’s behind the sales.

Interviews with stakeholders and business commentators provide arguments for and against the benefits stated by the Government.

NZX Chief Executive Mark Weldon told the New Zealand Herald in January that the energy companies should be looking at investments overseas but are hindered in doing this by having the indebted government in their current structure.

However, Joan Withers, the chair of Mighty River Power (the first energy company being privatised) told Fairfax that the current state-owned structure had not been unduly restrictive and that they had been able to invest in Chile.

Meridian has also been active in overseas markets, with wind farm developments in Australia and Antarctica, and solar power in the United States.

Business journalist and economic com19

FEATURE mentator Rod Oram, says the Government’s plans to sell shares in the state-owned companies is an economic contradiction and bad financial management. In an article in the Sunday Star-Times last November, he argued against the benefits being promoted

by John Key about the move to expanded mixed ownership.

He says the government can finance investments more cheaply through debt, and avoid the likelihood of dividends from these companies flowing overseas through for-

eign ownership – which is in conflict with the goal to maximise the return to the government and increases New Zealand’s current account deficit.

Oram also questioned whether there would be any increase in efficiency through private ownership and external oversight, quoting Treasury’s comments that there is little evidence of under-performance when compared to the two energy companies that are listed on the NZX (Contact and TrustPower).

POTENTIAL SALES POTENTIAL SALES Genesis Energy is New Zealand’s largest energy retailer with more than 65,000 customers. They supply electricity, gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Genesis is also New Zealand’s third largest electricity generator, owning and operating a portfolio of thermal and renewable power stations across New Zealand, with a total generation capacity of 2,131MW. Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates seven hydro stations, four wind farms within New Zealand (2,644MW), a wind farm in Australia (70MW), solar in the USA (5MW), a wind farm in Antarctica (0.99MW) and a solar station in Tonga (1MW). Meridian also retails electricity to around 280,000 individual customer connections (including Powershop) throughout New Zealand and provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the New Zealand Aluminium Smelter in Bluff. Meridian has over 1,500 megawatts (MW) of Australasian development opportunities in the development pipeline.

Mighty River Power retails electricity to more than 370,000 customers nationwide and runs Metrix, a company that’s growing the smart meter grid in the Auckland region. Mighty River Power’s generates around 1,601MW of electricity from renewable hydro and geothermal power stations and are currently developing a further 460MW of geothermal generation, due to be commissioned by 2013.

Solid Energy supplies and exports coal, waste wood biomass, wood pellets, biodiesel, electricity from coal seam gas, and solar water heating.

Solid Energy owns and operates five coal mines across New Zealand and companies including Biodiesel (renewable fuel), Nature’s Flame (wood pellet fuel) and Switch Energy (space and water heating solutions). Solid Energy are developing technologies in lignite conversion and gas production as energy sources.

Air New Zealand is an international and domestic airline group which provides air passenger and cargo transport services within New Zealand, as well as to and from Australia, the South West Pacific, Asia, North America and the United Kingdom. Air New Zealand also encompasses business units providing engineering and ground handling services. Subsidiaries extend to booking systems, travel wholesaling and retailing services. Each year, Air New Zealand transports over 13 million passengers to, from and around New Zealand, operating more than 4,000 flights each week between New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, China, Japan, Canada, USA and the United Kingdom.

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Massey University Associate Professor of Economics Christoph Schumacher says asset sales may not be a bad idea, provided the assets are managed correctly.

“Less government involvement in businesses might trigger increased private sector activities,” Schumacher says. “It would also broaden the investments available to New Zealanders, if shares of the stateowned enterprises are partly floated.”

When asked why people are against the sales, he says that the cost of debt is relatively low compared to the average return on equity of the assets considered to be sold. Also that part privatisation may not increase efficiency because there will still be majority ownership by the government.

“So, New Zealanders might actually lose money,” says Schumacher. “However, what is often forgotten is that the present value of an asset includes projected earnings, which are reflected in the sale price.”

He also asks the question of whether the key issue is not an economic one, but an emotional one. Do we want our companies owned by overseas investors?

He may have a point. Although the concept of selling our assets feels bad, the Government’s argument is compelling.

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any people would argue that there needs to more competition and oversight to improve the marketplace for consumers, and that New Zealand needs to avoid increasing its current level of debt and avoid the pitfalls experienced by many other countries.

Many New Zealanders also, no doubt, dream of improved social assets (like schools and hospitals) as well as increased infrastructure to support communication, learning, and business (such as broadband) without selling all of the silverware or increasing debt levels in a way that puts the economy at risk.

Selling down a part of our state-owned assets (a mere 3% of the total owned) would enable New Zealanders to retain the majority share of the cake, while reaping the benefits of investing in important resources that improve the lives of all New Zealanders.

This is a topic that affects all Kiwis and will impact on the New Zealand of the future and something that people should have informed discussion about.

MASSIVE surveyed you to find out whether you think the partial sale/mixedownership model for New Zealand’s four state-owned energy companies and the expansion of the mixed model ownership of Air New Zealand will be good for New Zealand.

Shelley Venning takes an introspective look into her involvement in the world of Tupperware and motherhood.

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upperware had its beginnings in 1942 when Earl Tupper came across a newly formulated plastic called polyethylene. He knew immediately it was exactly what he’d been looking for and used it – first to make a bathroom drinking glass, then his famous lidded bowls. My mother started collecting these bowls in the 60s before I was born.

And since my kids were born she’s started giving me food in her Tupperware, saying, “You might as well keep the container”. I look at this plastic as a kind of heirloom,l since my family are far too practical for jewellery. A square cake keeper with a lifetime guarantee is infinitely more useful than a diamond ring. When I tell my mother I’m thinking of selling Tupperware she laughs: “Don’t you remember saying Tupperware was far too domesticated?” I don’t recall saying this but I do remember when I dined

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MY HISTORY OF TUPPERWARE: A BRIEF BUT INTENSE AFFAIR out three times a week, threw leftovers directly in the bin, had a mere shelf in a shared fridge, and when extending the life of my vegetables was not a priority.

My first baby was text-book. Someone once asked me what techniques I used to settle him and I was flummoxed. He hardly ever cried and when he did it was a small, muted sound. I took him to baby massage classes and music lessons. He visited six cafes in his first two weeks. Once, an antenatal friend and I took our babies for an early morning swim then walked to the city, stopping for lattès and muffins on the way.

The babies slept while we strolled and woke only to feed and give us gummy smiles. We returned home just on dusk and joked for days about our ‘cafe crawl’.

In 1946, Earl Tupper introduced his legendary airtight seal. Based on the inverted rim on a can of paint it prevented food from

drying out, wilting, or losing its flavour. Despite its breakthrough nature, Tupperware didn’t sell well until 1949 when Brownie Wise starting promoting it at parties. It seems consumers needed demonstrations in order to understand how the product worked, and Tupperware parties proved to be an enormous success. I don’t see myself as a ‘saleswoman’ but I do love parties and own a lot of Tupperware. According to Team Manager Cherie, I’m the perfect recruit. Cherie is very blonde and very nice.

She says she didn’t think she’d be any good at selling, either, but now makes more money from Tupperware than she did full-time as a teacher. She also has two small children and is enjoying the fun, flexibility and free stuff.

During the birth of my second baby I wanted to be in Tahiti. I wanted to be anywhere but in the birthing pool. I wanted to 21

FEATURE be my mother who at the time was holidaying in Scotland with a girlfriend, probably drinking whisky. I would have killed for a glass of wine. After he was born and lying sleeping on my bed I studied him curiously looking for the things I couldn’t recognise, for how he was different from his brother. I gently stroked his fine hair and he let out a sudden, raucous howl. I snatched my hand back and surveyed him with awe and unease. This sound was something I’d never heard before.

At the Tupperware ‘Open Evening’ I was handed a pristine white paper bag with a lolly-pink stripe on it and ‘Tupperware’ emblazoned on the front. Inside I found a form to fill out to go in the draw for an ‘awesome’ Tupper prize and a popper to pop should I decide to join Tupperware, at which point I was promised a very special gift. Rebecca and Pete, “your very, very proud directors” were masters of ceremonies. They stood on a stage in front of a long table, the items on which were mysteriously shrouded in black Tupperware tablecloths. They talked about ‘dating in close’, alluded to something called a ‘spell up’ and read out names of ‘superstar starters’ and members of the ‘friendship club’. When the sales figures were announced, Pete pressed a button, dry ice pumped into the room and Queen’s We Are the Champions blasted out of the speakers. I was amused and appalled, fascinated and nauseated. It was a carnival in cheesiness, ridiculous and infectious all at once. It reminded me of stepping off the plane in Tahiti. The locals spoke to me in French and I had no idea what they were saying, but the novelty of a foreign language on a tropical island was marvellously exotic and absurdly exciting. It was also like being back at Intermediate. When I was 11 the whole class at my Catholic school was confirmed. I refused. I didn’t think I should rush into that kind of commitment. At the Tupperware ‘Open Evening’ my popper re-

mained un-popped.

When my second baby was three weeks old, my mother, fresh from imbibing whisky in Scotland, came to stay. Around this time the baby began to cry more than he slept. I would spend hours trying to settle him. One night around 3am, desperately tired and tiredly desperate, I placed him in his basket and lay down hoping for two, maybe three, or miraculously four, hours of uninterrupted sleep. The baby promptly screamed and threw up his entire feed. I screamed too, a primal sound. I cried out, “No. I don’t know what to do.” I was face down, sobbing, great gulps into the sheets when my mother rushed in, “What’s happened?” she said. “Has the baby died?”

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y 1951, the Tupperware home demonstration system was working so well that all Tupperware products were taken off store shelves to be distributed solely at parties. The direct sales demonstration was a welcome diversion for women, whose involvement in the community mostly revolved around their family. Selling Tupperware products via the party sales method was an appealing career. I talk to Cherie about my reservations. I’m not sure I’d have time for Tupperware since I already work in radio three days a week, am studying part-time and have two small children.

“It’s pretty full on with a two-and-a-halfyear-old and a baby who’s just turned one,” I say. Cherie nods in empathy. “I think of Tupperware as my break from the kids,” she confides. “Anyway if it’s not your cup of tea you can quit and still get $1200 worth of Tupperware for free.” I imagine myself, all polished and professional, waving goodbye to Rob and the boys as I confidentially climb in the car to go do a Tupperware party. I look at the pretty pastel coloured ‘H2O OnThe-Go’ drink bottles, the ‘Modular Mates’ and the ‘Clear Mates’ fridge set included in the ‘free kit’ and shrug. “Ok.” I say, “What

“I lock myself in the toilet for time out and dream about a time when I could choose whether to go to a library, a café, or a pub. When I could decide whether or not to cook dinner or do any washing. When I could go to bed and actually sleep through the night.”

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have I got to lose?”

Just when I think it’s getting easier, it gets harder. Everyone told me you just have to get through the first two years with two.

But nobody told me it would be this tough.

Nobody told me I would lose my voice, literally and figuratively. Nobody told me that, when both boys were climbing on me and clawing me, bouncing on me like I’m a mattress, I would feel crushed and smothered.

Nobody told me I would feel trapped, as if a concrete slab had fallen across my chest, or a cell door slammed and locked.

The morning of my first Tupperware party as a Demonstrator, the host, my neighbour, pops her head in the front door. “I’ve had six cancellations,” she says, “only two of my friends can make it. Do you think we should still go ahead?” I’m disappointed and relieved. Fewer guests means less chance of achieving $3500 in sales over two weeks and paying off my kit, but it also means less humiliation when I forget to explain the features and benefits of Tupperware’s ‘Modular Mates’ or when the lemon muffins I’m baking for the cooking demonstration stick to the ‘TupperChef Muffin Form’ (you can buy this, as a set, with the ‘Mini-Muffin Form’, this month only, for just $83.80). The party goes ahead. I sell over $700 worth of Tupperware. No one tries my muffins. I sit next to Tania at the weekly Sales Meeting. She started as a Demonstrator a month before me, and has already qualified for the ‘high level host gift’ at half price. I ask how she’s enjoying selling Tupperware, she rolls her eyes and whispers conspiratorially: “They tell you a party only takes two to three hours but there’s the planning, the replacements, the ordering and the packing.” I nod my head and think about Cherie assuring me all these things would soon become quick and easy. Tania leans in close and adds: “Apparently they make all their money out of you in the first few months”. I raise my eyebrows and purse my lips in reply.

The toddler once made a ball of playdoh in a grubby mix of brown and green. I feel as if this is permanently wedged in my stomach. I watch the clock. Six hours until their father’s home, then four hours, two hours, forty-five minutes until bedtime. I eat only while standing and spooning food into the baby’s mouth or running back and forth for, “juice Mummy, yogurt Mummy, toast Mummy with two peanut butters” (just choose one for fuck’s sake). I lock myself in the toilet for time out and dream about a time when I could choose whether to go to a library, a café, or a pub. When I could decide whether or not to cook dinner or do any washing. When I could go to bed and actually sleep through the night.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BURTON

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eminist views of Tupperware and its party sales format varied. Some thought the gendered product and selling techniques further domesticated women, and kept their predominant focus on homemaking. Others believe Tupperware provided work for women who were pregnant, looking after small children, or otherwise not guaranteed employment due to unequal gender laws in the workplace. “I can’t believe how much Tupperware polarises people,” one of my party hosts says as I am carefully stacking ‘Modular Mates’ and surveying my tower of ‘FridgeSmarts’, advantageously placed for cross promotion, on her dining table. Her husband is lingering, probably waiting for permission to escape. I stop stacking and think about my friend Louisa, the interior designer, who was openly appalled when she found out I’d become a Demonstrator.

“Oh Shelley,” she exclaimed, “you’re not doing that!” as if I’d cheated on my boyfriend or painted my kitchen yellow and blue. Rob himself clearly had reservations when he casually commented: “It’ll be good when you have a job that you’re not embarrassed to tell people about.” And once at a party when I said I used to be a Breakfast Radio Announcer now I’m a Tupperware Demonstrator a couple of guests sniggered. But then there was Amanda who, on seeing the Tupperware catalogue strategically placed on my kitchen bench, shrieked, “Oh Tupperware. I love it!” Or Elizabeth, who rings just to chat about new products and is constantly sending me replacements – hers, her neighbours, her workmates, the friend www.massivemagazine.org.nz

of a friend at kindy. How can plastic be so polarising?

The toddler who’s been toilet trained for a few months starts wetting his pants, just a little; he’ll then stop and hold on until it’s too late to make it to the potty. One day when the mother-in-law is visiting she informs me he’s had an accident. I take him to the bathroom. “Sit down on the potty and pee,” I say, “then you can play with Grandma.” He kicks and screams. I try again. He hits me and yells: “No pee. No pee.” I raise my voice in frustration and to compete with his screaming as I tell him he can stay in the bathroom until he’s done. I close the door and sigh. I know I should have handled it differently. The mother-in-law says reproachfully: “That’s no way to talk to a toddler. That’s certainly not the way to handle a two-year-old.” For a second I’m confused and wonder who she’s talking to, then a mushroom cloud of anger explodes between my temples and I say between gritted teeth: “You do not tell me how to talk to my son.”

Tupperware parties were revolutionary in that they offered an alternative model for commercial success based around female co-operation rather than aggressive competition. The networks of Tupperware parties were about women helping other women and enabling them. Tupperware became an extension of socialising; the antithesis of male corporate culture and the opposite of Mad Men. In my first month as a Tupperware Demonstrator I sell enough to qualify for an invite to the Distributorship’s

fifth birthday dinner. I’m seated next to a seasoned Demonstrator from Hawke’s Bay. She inquires about my children. When I tell her I have two boys, one aged two-and-ahalf and the other one, she leans back and looks me over: “Are you going crazy?” she asks. I’m momentarily taken aback then I laugh. “Yes, actually I am.” She nods her head sagely. “No one warns you. No one tells you what it’s really like.” Nobody told me I would throw tantrums and oven trays and cry while I scraped glutinous squashed egg off a high chair. Nobody bothered to mention that I wouldn’t be able to sit down for more than 17 seconds. Nobody said that wiping a toddler’s bum becomes a tortuous 10-minute outing to the bathroom. That it includes a row over how much soap to use, who turns on the tap, who turns it off, who pulls out the plug (it’s only washing your hands, for fuck’s sake). And nobody mentioned the inappropriate swearing.

One Friday morning I have an hour or so to myself. I should be studying but I’m in the Salvation Army Shop ostensibly looking for clothes for the boys. I scan the shelf of home wares. There’s a red enamel jug with a black and white cartoon printed on it, a Mickey Mouse egg cup, an old straw dispenser and a set of five yellow and blue mugs, all of which are chipped. The dust mites make me sneeze and when I open my eyes I spot it – the Tupperware ‘Pick-A-Deli Round’. I hastily pick it up before someone else sees it. In perfect condition, it’s the model from the current range with the ‘sheer pear’ seal.

I take the lid off to find the rotate-to-lock 23

FEATURE strainer even has the integrated fork. In the catalogue I carry in my bag the ‘Pick-A-Deli Round’ is $49.90. In the Salvation Army Shop it’s $5. I almost skip to the counter.

I can’t contain my excitement and ask the girl behind the cash register, “Why would someone give this away?” The customer next to me inspects my Tupperware and says: “They probably couldn’t work out what it was for.” One evening a couple of weeks later I find my ‘Pick-A-Deli Round’ sitting on the bench with some wilted mesclun lying in the bottom. The strainer and fork are inexplicably absent. Rob has used it to transport his lunch to work. I’m dismayed. This is a specifically designed container for storing olives, beetroot, pickled onions – anything that needs to be kept in its own juice or brine. He should have used the ‘Salad On-The-Go’. When I ask what he was thinking he says: “Yeah sorry, I didn’t know what it was for.”

The man I once took on a romantic jaunt to Fiji now tells me off for using bad language in front of his sons. I have become that woman in the supermarket raising her voice at the toddler and desperately trying to stop the baby climbing out of the pram while loading soap powder and nappies onto the checkout belt. Nobody says anything but I can’t ignore the voice in my head.

It’s an amalgam of my mother-In-law and my voice from before I had kids – “That’s not the way to handle those children. What a stupid, useless woman. You’ve got no control of those boys.”

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pell up happens every Monday night at the Sales Meeting. It’s a bit like an auction. All Demonstrators and Managers who have sold over $750 in product in the previous week are invited to stand. When your number’s up you raise your hand and recite your weekly figures. Last one standing is rewarded with Tupperware. At my second spell up it’s just me and a Manager. I’m astounded and ridiculously chuffed when she sits before me and I win. I say: “Hi. I’m Shelley from team ‘Topnotch-Tuppers’. I held five, dated six and sold $3750.” Everyone claps. I momentarily bask in the recognition then feel my cheeks flush as I walk to the stage and Rebecca presents me with a Tupperware ‘Soy Scape’. Last month this was the 50 percent-off special; you could buy two for $15 – which makes my prize worth $7.50. I already have a couple but I can always use more. They’re perfect for storing olive oil, vinegar or soy sauce.

I’m like a piece of curling ribbon, stretched out, springing back, stretched out, springing back, left limp but coiled. Every morning I vow to be a better mother. Then the toddler hits the baby, the baby cries, I intervene. I attempt to check my email.

The baby screams. I pacify him. I make a quick phone call. “Nooooo. Don’t touch that,” I say too late. The baby has tipped the toddler’s potty all over the kitchen floor.

I clean and disinfect. I pack an order. The toddler hits the baby, the baby cries. I tell the toddler to stop. He looks directly at me and hits his brother again. “Right that’s it,” I yell. I yank his arm and shut him in his

room. My mother recently bought me Baby Whisperer Tracy Hogg’s book ‘Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers: How to calm, control and enjoy your toddler’ in which Tracy says yanking and yelling is bullying behaviour. She joins the voices in my head as they chant “You bully”.

I hold seven parties in one week and the week after seven enormous boxes of Tupperware arrive. I’m itching to unpack and sort my orders right away but I’m realistic about the nightmare that would ensue with the toddler and baby and a mass of plastic containers. I wait till eight that night but by then my enthusiasm has dissipated. I turn on the television for the first time in four weeks and flick to America’s Next Top Model. Soon I’m surrounded by ‘Heat N Eat’s’, ‘Clear Mates’, ‘Sweet Keepers’, ‘Snack Cups’, ‘Flan Forms’ and ‘Antarctica Square Rounds’. I have no idea who gets eliminated on America’s Next Top Model and no clue who ordered three replacement lids, or why there is a ‘Turbo Chef’ and a ‘TupperChef Spatula’ left over after packing all seven orders. I check the clock on the microwave. It’s well after midnight and I’m all Tuppered out.

I take the toddler to the doctor for his fourth ear infection in six months. While we’re there I ask about my itchy, red eyes which have prevented me wearing contacts.

The baby chews on the doctor’s stethoscope, climbs on top of an arm chair and starts smacking the venetian blinds against the window while the toddler pulls the carefully laid out sheets off the bed. The doctor smiles sympathetically and inquires if I’ve been under any stress lately. He diagnoses blepharitis and writes me a prescription.

Afterward, while I’m strapping the wriggling, straining, kicking, screaming baby into the car seat (he’s taken to resisting furiously lately and even arches his back) a man driving past toots and swears at me for having the car door open. “I’m putting the baby in the car seat, for fuck’s sake,” I growl. I climb into the front seat and take a deep breath, but it’s too late. I can’t quell the hot tears of frustration.

I

get an unexpected phone call. “Hi doll. It’s Trudi from head office. I hear you’re doing really well and we’d like you to speak at sessions”. ‘Sessions’ is Tupper-lingo for the biannual conference where a new catalogue is released. There’ll be about 500 people in attendance. I’m flattered that she’s asking but after two months as a Demonstrator I don’t think I’d have much to say. I tell her as much but she’s adamant they want me to speak. I ask how soon she needs to know. “Last Friday”. I ask her to email me the brief and tell her I’ll think about it. Five 24

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BURTON

minutes later my Distributorship Director, Rebecca, calls. She’s clearly taken aback that I haven’t said an immediate yes. I explain I’ve got quite a lot on at the moment and preparing a 10-minute presentation is a big commitment. She says: “It’s a real honour that they’ve asked you and frankly I think it’s odd that you have to consider it.

Maybe you’re not the right person for the job.” “Maybe I’m not,” I reply.

When I had children, I strategically gathered an impressive support network. The ante-natal group, the ‘Plunket in the Neighbourhood’ group, the ‘Pregnancy Aqua’ group, the Internet forum ‘Due Date’ group, but these people, the people who would understand, who would say “But Tracy Hogg has no kids” are busy when I need them most. It’s 4:45pm and they’re dealing with their own chaos. I’m lying on the floor sobbing and the baby is batting my leg. The toddler is saying “Shut up mummy, shut up”. The voices in my head say “It’s only two under three, for fuck’s sake”.

I think about the word ‘extricate’. I say it aloud, emphasising each syllable. It pops into my head as I’m washing rice in the Tupperware ‘Microwave Rice Cooker’ for dinner and then again as I’m lying in bed that night. In the morning I look it up. In my thesaurus’ synonyms for ‘extricate’ include disengage, disentangle, free, get out, liberate, release, relieve, remove, rescue, withdraw and disembarrass. I don’t speak at ‘Sessions’ but I do attend. The conference is held in the ballroom of a nondescript Auckland hotel. Modern metallic chandeliers hang from the ceiling like stalactites.

There are Tupperware demonstrators from all over New Zealand, each distributorship in homogeneous dress. The team from Christchurch, who were named well before the earthquake, are called ‘Seismic’. The Auckland team, ‘Vitality’, are the biggest and have sparkly pom poms and noisemakers. Everyone from my distributorship, ‘Peak’, is dressed in black accessorised by lilac scarves. I’m wearing new Michael Kors wedges and a Karen Walker dress, and even though I’m wearing my glasses, for the first time in ages I feel like I look good. Rebecca stands out wearing a pale lilac suit. She’s tall with long, straightened blonde hair and must be 40-something. We may be close in age but I feel like an awkward teenager around her. At the sales meeting after the phone call she patted me on the leg and proposed we move on, but whenever she speaks I still hear disapproval, disappointment and disbelief. I’m awarded Top Demonstrator in New Zealand for Tupperware sales. Everyone from my team stands and claps. They chant “’Peak’ for performance, go, go, go.” Rebecca gives me a cold smile www.massivemagazine.org.nz

“It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends – Joan Didion”

and a lacklustre hug. I walk carefully to the stage in my new shoes. I’m presented with a silver jewellery box and Hazel from head office clasps my hands. She looks at me intently and asks how I’m enjoying the Tupperware experience. I attempt an enthusiastic nod. When I’m back in my seat I peek in the box at my prize and wonder if my mother-in-law would use it. At Sessions I learn Tupperware is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Brownie Wise was the first woman to be featured on the cover of Business Week in the US, and the difference between try and triumph is the ‘umph’.

There’s a promotional video for the upcoming Melbourne conference, with shots of the new Docklands area, the Casino, and one of those über-cool shopping lanes.

There’s a special trip for ‘qualifiers’ to the Fern Tree Gully factory where Tupperware is made and Guy Sebastian is singing at the After Party. I imagine walking down Chapel Street with Cherie and Tania, our shopping bags swinging. Liberated from prams and nappy bags, relieved of baby ‘witching hour’ we’d celebrate ‘happy hour’. Then I give myself an inward shake because there’s no way I’m going to Melbourne. I feel momentarily wistful. It’s like hanging out with a boyfriend just before telling him it’s over.

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omedians loved to joke about Tupperware parties, but that just provided free publicity. Earl Tupper was laughing all the way to the bank in 1958, when he was able to sell his company for approximately $16 million and retire for life. When I ring Cherie and tell her I’m quitting it’s like stepping off a packed bus onto an empty footpath. She doesn’t seem overly surprised, though she asks why I didn’t talk to her earlier, when I was only thinking about it. I laugh ruefully and explain: “I was thinking about leaving before I even started”.

It’s a wet Saturday afternoon and I do some baking in a Tupperware silicon muf-

fin form but in my own kitchen. The baby points and says, “na-na, na-na”. “No. Not na-na,” I say, “lemon muffins”. He eats one, then points again, wanting more. He’s always liked my baking. I look around and see Tupperware everywhere. There are ‘Sandwich-Keeper Plus’ lunchboxes drying on the bench, the ‘TupperWave 1 Litre Jug’ is sitting on the microwave, the remains of the toddler’s birthday cake are in the ‘Square Cake Keeper ‘ on the table, and then I notice the ‘Season-Serve’ tucked away by the toaster. It’s a container expressly designed to tenderise and marinate meat but Rob has used it for storing bread rolls. I pick up the baby and he bites my shoulder as I whisper in his ear “Silly daddy.”

That night I go to a movie with a girlfriend. We arrive early and have time for a wine and to catch up. I tell her Rob and I have booked a trip to the Melbourne Cup and my mother is looking after the baby and toddler. She tells me about her crazy mother and that she’s considering looking for a sperm donor. She asks if I’m missing Tupperware and I pause, searching for somewhere high to put my glass, then, remembering that the baby is at home in bed, placing it with relief on the coffee table. I rest my chin on my palm and run a finger over my lips considering her question. The play-doh ball in my stomach has dissolved, the voices are silent and there are no Tupperware mould numbers running through my head. I recall watching my mother carefully sealing her Tupperware. Pressing the rim of the lid around the lip of the container, she’d hold the edge with one hand and lift it slightly while firmly pushing on its centre until the air ‘whooshed’ out. I laugh abruptly because that’s exactly how I feel, like the anxiety has been ‘whooshed’ out of me. Smiling wryly at my friend I shake my head slowly and say “No.” Then with equal emphasis on each word add: “Not at all.”

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Shen Yun Performing Arts was established in 2006 with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture

More than just a stage show, Shen Yun plans to give the audience a glimpse into traditional Chinese culture and revive a lost part of Chinese heritage.

REVIVING AND REPRESENTING TRUE CHINESE CULTURE

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ophisticated dance techniques, an orchestra joining instruments of the East and West, beautiful costumes, and a stunning backdrop—this is Shen Yun Performing Arts at first glance. It’s easy for audiences to see the beauty and whimsy that the performances exude.

To the novice, it is a beautiful and charming theatrical experience. Yet for many Chinese around the world, Shen Yun has come to represent nothing short of a saviour, and torch bearer, of their precious authentic culture. Such values as: propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and belief in divine retribution originate from China’s three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and have been the essence of traditional Chinese culture. However, the foundations of traditional culture have been largely lost due to systematic attack by the Chinese communist regime.

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5,000 Years of Culture Since ancient times, China has been known as the “Celestial Empire,” referring to the belief that the divine, through various dynasties, transmitted a rich and abundant culture to the Chinese. Chinese culture is thus known as “divinely inspired,” and over a continuous recorded history of 5,000 years, ancient Chinese ascribed many of their greatest achievements in science and the humanities to deities. For example, the god Cangjie created Chinese characters, Shennong imparted agriculture, and Suiren revealed the uses of fire.

China’s three religions have been the bedrock of Chinese civilization. Taoist thought was systemised by the sage Lao Zi over 2,500 years ago in his book “Dao De Jing” (“Tao Te Ching”). The book expounds on the mysterious Way of the universe, which he calls the Tao. Confucianism emphasises a moral code

for governance, family, and individual conduct. The teachings of Confucius (551 B.C.–479 B.C.) were the guiding principles for nearly every Chinese dynasty beginning with the Han. All who wished to become an official had to pass civil-service examinations that comprehensively tested their grasp of the Confucian classics and their moral code.

In A.D. 67, Buddhism reached China from ancient India. Its focus on personal salvation and meditation had a profound effect on Chinese culture, lasting until today.

Under the influence of these faiths, Chinese culture has spawned a rich and profound system of values. The concepts of “man and nature must be in balance,” “respect the heavens to know one’s destiny,” and the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness are all products of these three PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS

religions’ teachings, and traditional Chinese way of life was tied inextricably with these ideas.

It was also under the guidance of these tenets that trade, diplomacy, law, the arts, medicine, and engineering flourished in a uniquely Chinese fashion. Innovations such as paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder were first invented in China, long before their discovery in Europe.

Systematic Destruction In the last 60 years under communist rule, the foundations of traditional Chinese culture have been largely lost. Atheism was forced upon society, and socialism ascribed as the people’s new religion.

To send the message that the old world was ending, the communist regime not only destroyed cultural sites, temples, and relics, beginning with the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, but also has created its own culture of violence and tries to legitimise it through art. Propagandistic plays, films, and songs praise the power of the regime, instead of the traditional respect for the divine inherent in Chinese culture.

Today, the Chinese regime claims to be reviving traditional Chinese culture through Chinese language learning centres and cultural exchange programs overseas, but all of these only serve to promote its own Party culture, not that of Chinese people’s ancestors, from which it has severed modern Chinese.

Dr. Liang described the spiritual impact that Shen Yun had brought to him as “heart-shaking.”

Ninety-two-year-old Huang Qunying, a prodigy artist, poet, painter, and calligrapher, first saw Shen Yun in 2009 and was very moved by the performance. He returned in March 2011 to a performance in the city of Taoyuan, Taiwan, with eight guests including his wife, daughter, and students.

Mr. Huang cheerfully told The Epoch Times, “Shen Yun is an ideal form of education through entertainment, which is a fountain that can inspire the wisdom of life, the source of cultural arts, and the zenith of truthfulness, gracefulness, and beauty.”

Talking about Shen Yun’s impact on society, Mr. Huang said, “Shen Yun has blended the essences of tradition, history, culture, ethics, morality, and modern technology into an exquisite form of performing arts, which can purify people’s hearts and make society more peaceful.”

He went on to say that seeing Shen Yun perform “makes people feel touched and

exhilarated.”

Mr. Li Chiao, former national policy adviser to the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and winner of the National Award for the Arts in 2006, told The Epoch Times after a performance in Taipei that “Shen Yen has sufficiently and perfectly displayed the quintessence and the wonderfulness of Chinese culture.”

Mr. Li added that the Shen Yun performance “rehabilitates the truth about Chinese culture.”

For more information about Shen Yun Performing Arts and Chinese culture, please visit: shenyunpreformingarts.com/learn Shen Yun Performing Arts will perform an all-new 2012 program at Auckland’s Aotea Centre April 20-22, and Wellington’s St James Theatre April 23-24, 2012. To learn more about Shen Yun Performing Arts and Chinese culture, view a calendar of Shen Yun’s 2012 world tour, please visit: www.shenyunperformingarts.org

Cultural Revival: One Show at a Time With the passage of time and several generations, the true divinely inspired Chinese culture was on the brink of extinction. It was with great urgency that in 2006, New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts was formed by overseas Chinese artists with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture.

By presenting Chinese culture in the context of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism’s influence in daily life, Shen Yun is able to capture the unadulterated essence of Chinese culture as it organically developed over the centuries.

“Shen Yun has manifested the spirit of Chinese culture authentically and thoroughly. I am moved deeply [by the performance]” said Dr. Liang Huaimao to The Epoch Times in Taipei following a Shen Yun performance in March 2010.

Dr. Liang is the president of the Chinese Nation Cultural Development Association in Taipei. He went on to say, “There is a vast expanse of national [Chinese] culture.

Since culture is life, watching a Shen Yun performance is really touching.” www.massivemagazine.org.nz

With state-of-the-art graphics technology, Shen Yun’s digitalbackdrops create a dramatic setting for each dance number.

“Shen Yen has sufficiently and perfectly displayed the quintessence and the wonderfulness of Chinese culture.”

-Mr. Li Chiao, former national policy adviser to the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan)

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FEATURE

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PHOTOGRAPHS: SARAH BURTON HAIR AND MAKEUP: MEG STOVELL-DUNDAS, STYLING: TESSA BRADLEYISSY WEARS ALL VINTAGE

LIFE AFTER NZ’S NEXT TOP MODEL The nasty backstabber, the immature one, the tomboy, the one with the eating disorder … we’re all well used to the stereotypes portrayed on model reality TV shows.

In last year’s New Zealand’s Next Top Model, Massey Wellington student Isabel Thorpe was cast as “the crazy one.”

After meeting her, I can see how her naturally effervescent say-whateverpops-into-her-head personality was a feature that the show’s producers decided to enhance.

“I was happy because at least I wasn’t portrayed as real stuck-up or real bitchy or all that kind of stuff,” Issy says. “I was just kind of portrayed as this crazy chick and I was, like, yeeeeah, I’d rather be that!”

Unlike many of her fiercely competitive fellow contestants, Issy entered the show because she “kind of just had nothing to do last year and everybody had been telling me I should go try out for it and I thought, yeah ok why not?”

From her nonchalant attitude to the show, Issy was naturally surprised to make it as far as she did – into the top 4. I recall the photographers on the show always saying Issy was fun to have on a shoot. Add to this those amazing legs and that electric hair, and it’s obvious to me how she got so far.

She entered because she thought it would be fun and an interesting experience, but it was very different to what she expected.

“I didn’t realise how hard-out it would be and how ‘into’ it some of the girls were.”

Moving into the model house was also crazy. On the one hand, Issy loved meeting all the other contestants.

“The girls were some of the coolest people you’ll ever meet”.

She still keeps in contact with all but two of them. And the house itself was pretty damn nice. “The sunset and the sunrise – we had the view of the whole ocean. It was amazing.”

But on the other hand, the beautiful girls were essentially captive in that beautiful house.

Issy says the worst thing was “being locked up and not having any control over your own life. You have no idea what’s happening the whole time.

After a while you felt like you had to ask permission to go to the toilet.

That and being away from family and friends really sucked.”

After it was all over, Issy took part in some publicity work for the show, appearing on The Edge and Mai FM, and co-hosting on C4. But she has since pretty much returned to her regular existence, albeit with a lifechanging experience behind her.

But her home town of Upper Hutt isn’t letting the fame slide away so quickly.

“I just looked in The Leader today and there’s a photo of me painting this little girl’s hand, and I’ve also got another thing in this Vibrant Hutt magazine out at the moment,” Issy says. She’s also got two huge anti-smoking billboards adorning prominent Upper Hutt sites.

“Upper Hutt is gonna milk me.”

Sarah Burton

www.massivemagazine.org.nz

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FEATURE

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PHOTOGRAPHS: SARAH BURTON HAIR AND MAKEUP: MEG STOVELL-DUNDAS, STYLING: TESSA BRADLEYISSY WEARS ALL VINTAGE

www.massivemagazine.org.nz

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FEATURE

In the wake of Bowl-A-Rama, Olivia Jordan wonders if skateboarding will survive the corporate presence

SKATING ON THE EDGE

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rom its very beginning, skateboarding was the Sport of Rebels.

It was never intended to be a bigdollar business, originating as a kick-around for surfers, concrete a substitute for sea when the waves were flat. Anarchic by nature, there’s nothing wholesome or safe about it. Skateboarding evolved into one of the most influential movements of the late 20th century, shaping fashion, art, music, and media.

Yet, with its booming status, is any of the original culture of skateboarding still alive?

Or, has it become too consumed with bigmoney events and corporate sponsorship turning it into just another straight-laced

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jock sport?

Bowl-A-Rama, a week-long celebration of the spirit of skateboarding, returned to Wellington last month for its fifth year.

Though initially this event set out to embrace Wellington’s renowned hard-core skating scene, there’s a school of thought that as it continues to expand it runs the risk of destroying the very spirit it set out to celebrate, just as the commercialising of skateboarding in the 1970’s destroyed the spirit of Dogtown California.

Local skateboarding legend Aaron Kingsford has his doubts this will happen here: “Events like Bowl-A-Rama destroying or developing the culture of original skate-

boarding is debatable”.

Pasted on a deck, graffitied, tattooed, the Dogtown Cross punches you in the face, and shouts ‘piss off we’re skateboarding here’.

It all started in 1960’s California, with the crude wedding of a short surfboard and roller skate wheels. It flared, illuminated neighbourhoods, achieved commercial success, but within a couple of years skateboarding had all but disappeared. Only a few kept it from the grave, most notably those who were surfing for the Jeff Ho and Zephyr Surfboard Productions shop, who used it as a way to practise surfing manoeuvres on land in between waves.

In 1972 came the urethane wheel, which

BOWL-A-RAMA PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAYMA OTENE, DAY BY DAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Pedro Barros, RJ Barbaro and Rion Linderman competing in this years Bowl-A-Rama

gave the skateboard a new freedom and flexibility, and saw Jeff Ho and Skip Engblom set up a dedicated skate team.

Like a gang of outlaw punks with a uniform of custom-made Zephyr T-shirts, Vans shoes, and Levi’s, the Z-Boys, as the skate team came to be known, grabbed skateboarding by the balls.

Kingsford goes on: “In the early 70s, when pool skating was born, you would jump back fences, drain some random’s pool, and skate it until the cops busted you”. Effortlessly cool, the Z-Boys were rock stars, and the dried-up swimming pools of the mid 70’s California drought were their arenas. Guys wanted to be them and girls www.massivemagazine.org.nz

wanted to (well, you know how the saying goes). Before they knew it, the Z-Boys were making a global impact and the skateboarding revolution had begun. Yet it was still all about the skateboarding – skateboarding and just kicking around with mates.

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hen, just as it began to get very exciting, it seemed to all become very boring. Something cool quickly becomes something very uncool when it is cool to the masses. Through their success, the Z-Boys inadvertently paved the way for the social acceptance of skateboarding and corporate consumption. Laws banning skateboarding were lifted across the States, and

skate parks began cropping up in towns all around the world. The dangerous was suddenly very safe, and skateboarding was handed into the palms of a new generation.

Kingsford: “Nowdays you head on down to the local skatepark and roll about in a perfect pool (designed for skaters) and not have the slightest worry of getting in trouble for it. The aspect of having to earn your pool session by hunting for it has been lost, which with it took a more mischievous, animalistic side of pool skateboarding”.

More still, you can now skateboard from the safety of your own living room thanks to the aide of Play Station. Tony Hawk, though technically flawless, lacked the rebellious 33

FEATURE major skateboarding events, Bowl-A-Rama is an extension beyond just a competition, encompassing art shows and live music, celebrating all aspects of the skateboarding way of life. Bowl-A-Rama like a lot of other major skateboarding events, has one other very alluring appeal – it’s all free.

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The Dog Town cross has become synonymous the rebelious spirit of skateboarding

“Skateboarding as a culture has always pulled the middle finger at the man. In today’s society, where everything is so stiff and sterile, isn’t a little rebellion something worth protecting?”

energy bound up in skateboarding and appeared to bow down to corporate America.

Most recently, the pinnacle of skate boarding’s downward spiral came in the form of Justin Bieber, sorry, Ryan Sheckler. American All Star, blue eyed, straight teeth, perfectly managed, star of MTV reality show. If this is the face of skateboarding culture today, then it is in very fickle hands.

There is a place about 7000 miles away from California where the Dogtown attitude still kicks and pulses through the veins of the local skateboarders.

The Wellington skateboarding commu34

nity holds true to the original ethos. Much like the Z-Boys before them, they take the form of a gang of gritty rockers, paying little heed to rules or boundaries. Urban guerrillas, you will more likely see these figures grinding unimaginable objects in front of ‘Skateboarding Not Permitted’ signs, than in the safety of a council-built skatepark.

Chad Ford, the one to thank for bringing Bowl-A-Rama to Wellington (or not, depending what side your board is on), emphasises that the intention of the event is “to be an instrument” to the growth of skate culture. Differing from most other

he problem with things being free is that everything has its price. Funding for Bowl-A-Rama relies primarily on corporate sponsorship. As Kingsford says, “the sponsors’ influence on pool skating events these days is bigger than ever and has no sign of slowing down”.

Energy drink companies, sunglass brands etc, with more or less nothing to do with skateboarding, throw money at events left, right and centre, and Bowl-A-Rama being no exception.

When quizzed on his views of skateboarding event sponsorship, Kingsford says it “has changed the audience that would have probably once not given two fucks about skateboarding”. Meaning the once hard-core culture of skateboarding is beginning to be offset by fickle hands looking for freebies.

He believes the “copious amounts of accessories being thrown into the crowd attracts all sorts of two- and eight-wheeled wankers with their backs turned to the bowl to show their unamused mothers their new pair of sunglasses”. Furthermore, the edition of Wellington City Council as a sponsor is all the more ironic – while spray painting their sponsorship logo inside the bowl they were probably simultaneously erecting a ‘Skateboarding Not Permitted’ sign in another part of town.

Yet corporate sponsorship is a doubleedged sword. If it wasn’t for the financial backing of sponsors, frankly, there would be no Bowl-A-Rama and, as Kingsford agrees “the skateboarders we’re lucky enough to witness once a year would never make it here in the first place”.

Skateboarding as a culture has always pulled the middle finger at the man. In today’s society, where everything is so stiff and sterile, isn’t a little rebellion something worth protecting? Bowl-A-Rama sets out to keep this culture alive but it seems to increasingly be treading on thin ice. With expansion plans come the inevitable doom of an increasing corporate presence. Yet the hard-core skating crew are a stubborn lot and it will take a hell of a lot to break their spirit. Perhaps fittingly, then, the last words should be left to Kingsford: “I feel the existence of original skate culture at such events is still alive, and that it is in the skaters themselves, not the event”.

DOWN

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1. Rekindle 6. Opiates 12. Plundering 17. Revolving tray, lazy ...

18. Desert spring 19. Gone With The Wind heroine, ... O’Hara 20. Thinnest 21. Foiled 22. Traditional 24. French cap 26. Unclothed 29. Aged 33. Perverse humour 36. Temperature units 39. Relieve itch 41. Exalts 42. Fawning subordinate (3,3) 43. Cheeky creature 44. European cash 46. Emirate, Abu ...

48. Habitual users 50. Eyelid inflammation 52. Bar accounts 54. Perspired 56. Santa’s helper 58. His & ...

60. Embroiders 61. Transgression

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62. Rule badly 66. Straddling 67. H20-filled mattresses 70. January greeting, Happy ...! (3,4) 71. Photographer’s tool 72. Ten, ..., twelve 73. Pool stick 75. Rasp 76. Run amok, go ...

77. Add-on buildings (4-3) 78. Ghost 80. Slide on snow 81. Cry of discovery 82. Specific instant 85. Come before 88. Bunny’s chocolate gift (6,3) 90. Sleep 93. Made hygienic 95. Brazil’s ... Paulo 96. Burglar’s haul 97. Cummerbund 99. Insecticide (1,1,1) 100. Edible crustaceans 102. Song, Auld Lang ...

104. Punctuation mark, full ...

105. Tranquillised 108. Downward distance 110. Nursery rhyme, ... Blind Mice

112. Unbroken horse 114. Grassland 117. Volcano shafts 118. Lobe decoration 119. In name only 120. Long curl 122. Exposes 126. Stretchy material 129. Witch’s hex 132. Brought under control 135. Cure 136. Musical instrument, piano ...

137. Family member 138. Rental agreement 139. Lion’s calls 140. More irritable 141. Carpenters & mechanics 142. Stammers

1. Expanded (of dough) 2. Shocked, taken ...

3. Refers 4. Tidal river mouth 5. Squirrel food 6. Space flight organisation 7. Foot joint 8. Beaten with rod 9. Struggler 10. TV comic, Bill ...

11. Overfill 12. Religious ceremony 13. Smoker’s receptacle 14. Greed 15. Lead-in 16. Dizzy 23. Employs 25. Large stone 27. Prize 28. Swirling 30. People giving loans 31. The same 32. Restricted 34. Stewed leafstalk 35. Nobody (2-3) 37. Snake-like fish 38. Writer, Wilbur ...

39. Social bigots 40. Gun (engine) 45. Director, ... Spielberg 47. Proprietors 48. Lack of purpose 49. Murdered 51. Ached (for) 53. Admiration 54. Spot 55. Neglected 57. Pan-cook 59. Protrudes (6,3) 60. Sports boundaries 61. Avatar actor, ... Worthington 63. Biological category 64. Former (3-4) 65. Approaching 67. Ballroom dances 68. Tennis bat 69. Income cheats, tax ...

74. Most moist 79. Human trunks 81. Reworded (text) 83. Spicy honey liquor 84. Self-esteem 86. Scoundrel 87. Miscellaneous items, odds and ...

89. Chewy confectionery 90. Father’s boy 91. US folk dance 92. Muslim woman’s veil 94. Stupidly 96. Being untruthful 98. Crocodile Dundee star, Paul ...

101. Early anaesthetic 103. TV serial melodrama, soap ...

106. Proceed inside 107. Colombo is there, ... Lanka 109. Pseudonym, ... de plume 111. Relented (5,2) 112. Toothbrush hair 113. Rarely, ... in a blue moon 115. School bedroom 116. Wackiest (idea) 117. Courageous 120. Mouse-catching devices 121. Supplementary 122. Open wound 123. Lowed (of cow) 124. Mixer drinks 125. Shop 127. Illegal behaviour 128. Uncles & ...

130. Stare (at) 131. Final 133. Author unknown 134. Goes astray

35

COLUMNS

I NEED A BEER, THINGS ARE GETTING COMPLICATED

BEER GUY

Daniel Hargreaves loves his hops, barely and yeast and often writes blogs about the subject he enjoys so much.

We tricked him into writing about all things beer for MASSIVE.

I need a beer, things are getting complicated.

Sports fan or not it was great to cheer on the All Blacks with a pint during the RWC. The sorry thing is it was highly likely the beer in question had very little to do with this fine country.

One of the most prominent sponsors was a ‘Dutch lager’ brand made in Auckland by a company from Singapore that has as much business interest in: property, publishing and printing as it does in pouring pints.

Also the New Zealand beer scene is dominated by a duopoly, they produce brands that promote themselves to every demographic; from sexist advertising to ‘refined’ continental lagers.

Why does this matter, beer is beer? Well not quite, these large companies would sell you that but this outdated attitude is like saying cars are cars. Beer as a product has a spectrum and much of the mass produced brands pour

their profits back into marketing. The musing below perfectly sums up the ridiculousness of this brand loyalty.

“Beer drinkers have been duped by mass marketing into the belief that it makes sense to drink only one brand of beer. In truth, brand loyalty in beer makes no more sense than ‘vegetable loyalty’ in food. Can you imagine it?

“No thanks … I’m strictly a broccoli man.” – Stephen Beaumont Craft beer is the new buzzword; a renaissance in the last ten years has hit Europe, fuelled by a generally greater appreciation of food and drink and spurred on by the remarkable leviathan of brewing that has seen craft beer in the States become one of its fastest growing industries. All this during a recession!

Where does New Zealand fit in? Trends show that craft beer here is following the U.S trend of growth. Micro/nano Breweries are popping up everywhere,

and at the helm are brewers that are intelligent and forward thinking. Brewers that have traveled and tasted the great brews of the world and our now back here producing beers that have a nod to a style but use the best of New Zealand ingredients.

We live in a country that produces unique and world renowned hop varieties yet most of our best selling beer brands and their associated breweries would never go near a wonderfully fragrant Wai-iti, Nelson Sauvin or redolent Riwaka hop.

For those craft beer virgins out there I suggest trying to get hold of a few of these easy to find ‘gateway’ beers to get you started: Emersons Bookbinder: A NZ interpretation on an English style Ale. Tuatara Hefe: a light fruity German style wheat beer.

AFRICAN CHICKEN PEANUT PASTA Serves 8, Total cost: $19.50 Ingrediants: 4 Tbsp sesame oil - $0.90

•

2 cups chicken stock: $0.50

•

2 medium onion, chopped: $0.60

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Strip meat from roast chicken, set aside.

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4-6 cloves garlic, minced: $0.30

1/2 400g can Tomato puree: $0.80 (Freeze the rest in your ice cube tray and then move into ziplock bag – lasts longer than leaving in the fridge!)

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¼ Cabbage (half a half), sliced: $0.70

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•

3 cup cooked chicken, shredded: $8.00 (Used a whole frozen size 16 chicken that was on special at New World. Other mean sources of chicken for this are the cold chicken quarters you get from the supermarket deli – they are often cheaper at night)

2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes: $2.40 (I’m getting jacked at the moment by NW…Need to stock up when I can get them for ($1.00)

In a large saucepan heat oil and onion. Stir until softened. Add garlic and chicken and fry 1 more minute.

•

6 Tbsp chunky peanut butter: $1.20 (It’s about half a 375g jar)

•

FLAT FEEDS

Sam Bonney shows students how to feed your flat for less than $20

36

Steps: Chop onion, garlic and slice cabbage, set aside separately.

•

1 Tbsp curry powder: $0.10

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1 tsp each of salt, freshly ground black pepper and red pepper flakes: $0.30ish all together,

•

•

2x 500g packets budget pasta: (spirals, penne, macaroni, whatever etc) $2.40 (Some places have budget pasta for ($1.00 a pack) (Optional) Sliced spring onion or chopped peanut for garnish: $0.40

Boil salted water in a large saucepan and cook pasta while preparing chicken sauce.

Add curry powder, salt, pepper and chilli flakes to chicken mix.

Stir to coat thoroughly.

Add chicken stock, cans of tomatoes, tomato paste and peanut butter. Heat until almost boiling and then hold on low simmer if needed.

Chop spring onion or peanuts for garnish if using.

Drain pasta and rinse with cold water. Spoon evenly into bowls. Pour over evenly divided chicken sauce. Top with spring onion or peanut for flair.

FEMALE STRUGGLING TO HOOK UP Q: I’m a female fresher struggling to pick up a guy in town, what’s the secret?

-Shy girl seeking social liberation.

ASK A GURU

Similar to the back of the bus, this is where all the juicy shit is. Each month we will answer your questions via. Formspring.me/massiveguruz

A:Spacejump- you’re first year and about to enter the town mixing arena. Realistically, there should be a guide to it along with your free lanyard and condoms in your O Week pack entitled, ‘How to Pash and Dash.’ But, fair lady; fear not, as, you’ve come to the right place.

Step one is your attire. Please note this is substantially different to that of small town NZ, and may require some pizzazz. Location dependant, this choice also is a key signal as to your target demographic/calibre of male you are hoping to attract. As you are a young chick just leaving the nest, I suggest a slim fitting strapless cocoon/dress will do the trick.

Team it with some heels you are still learning to walk in and your camera to take selfies.

Get wasted before town by sculling Passion Pop from the bottle while listening to dubstep remixes of Beyonce or someone alty like Florence and the Machine.

Secondly, destination: head to an establishment renowned for its drink specials and tackiness, and try to pretend you didn’t arrive with fifteen of your new friends from your floor in your hall of residence. Although, subtlety is dead in this game, don’t leave anything to chance. Dance like a woo girl with your hands in the air gyrating like they did in that music video, occasionally pausing for some SnapStar shots. Thirdly, find your target and pounce. It’s a man drought out there and everyone’s fair game. If you like it put a ring on it. Go in for the kill but keep it simple, guys won’t be into a complicated chase at 2am.

Bat your Maybelline eyes at him so furiously he won’t refuse, and pull him onto the dance floor in a suggestive manner, letting him

grip and grind on your sexy body.

Remember, this could be like an investment buy and could supply you with ample more shots for the rest of the night, or, in the long term, a snuggle bunny for winter.

Throw caution to the wind and get amongst. If you don’t, everyone else still is.

5 Reasons coming back to uni was a good call • Remembering how good mi goring are as a substitute for meals, study and procrastination.

• living in denial about your financial situation before your course related costs run out • Not feelingguilty for doing nothing cos you’ve had a busy morning of two lectures • The fresh pool of first years to pash in the wake of rnv smangs and summer flings.

• The plethora of raging dub step and six60 gigs on offer in O Week.

INDIE FILMS & FESTIVALS

FILM BUFFED

Paul Berrington seems to know everything in the world about film, and wants you to aswel

www.massivemagazine.org.nz

Film fans can look forward to another treat of indie and festival delights next month, with those lovely people behind the New Zealand International Film Festival bringing the 14th World Cinema Showcase to cinemas around the country.

Some 36 films make up a selection that rates as arguably the best yet, with something for most tastes, and the premiere of two New Zealand documentaries, Mental Notes, and Te Hono ki Aotearoa.

Highlights include Ralph Fiennes in the director’s chair for Coriolanus, a modern take on Shakespeare. Oscar-nominated Chico & Rita, an animated film more in the classical tradition, follows a young Latin musician and his dreams of the big time.

Anna Paquin heads an impressive cast in Margaret, a multilayered drama from the hand of skilled screenwriter, Kenneth Lonergan.

Further quality drama comes in

the form of The Eye of the Storm, an adaptation of Australian writer Patrick White’s celebrated novel.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, the latest film from Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, returns after screening at NZIFF2011 and winning the Jury Prize at Cannes earlier that year.

For those thinking that lot would put them to sleep, there is action a plenty with Japanese maverick Takashi Miike’s latest Samurai epic, Hara-Kiri in 3D, a must-see for anyone who saw the same director’s brilliant 13 Assassins last year. Set during the final battle of the Korean War, Hun Jang’s The Front Line looks perfect for fans of intense battle senses and stern acting. Elsewhere, Stellan Skarsgaard, the creepy bad guy from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, stars in King of Devil’s Island, a grim Norwegian film about an uprising in a home for young delinquents.

One of the most impressive war

films ever made also makes an appearance, with Wolfgang Peterson’s claustrophobic Das Boot, featuring in its entire uncut form.

There is even some comedy on the menu with Whit Stillman’s latest, Damsels in Distress, which follows a trio of girls as they try to take-over the male-dominated college they attend. Elsewhere, Zooey Deschanel stars in Jesse Peretz’, Our Idiot Brother, which deals with the relationship of three sisters to their, um, idiot brother.

Documentaries also feature strongly. Joe Berlinger’s Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the continuing exploration of a trio of falsely convicted Arkansas men, shows alongside his examination of the making of Paul Simon’s classic Graceland album, following the musician as he returns to South Africa. The festival starts on March 29 in Auckland, April 5 in Wellington

37

REVIEWS

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE Paul Berrington

FILM

2012

Directed by Sean Durkin Produced by Antonio Campos, Patrick S. Cunningham Staring Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson

Told in a non-linear narrative that shows most of the details in flashback, this creepy and effective film explores the life of an escapee from a David Koresh-style cult.

Cold and without clear resolution, it successfully shows more than it tells, never attempting to pass judgment at either Martha’s (Elizabeth Olsen) redemption, or her time with the cult.

The opening scene establishes Martha’s escape, after which she calls her sister, who hasn’t heard from her in two years. What follows is a particularly difficult transition back into the normal life of her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson), and her wealthy and business-focused husband (Hugh Dancy).

A clearly strained relationship already exists between the two

sisters, and when Lucy over-reacts to Martha swimming naked in a nearby lake, her reaction is one in which she questions her ability to become a mother.

Writer-Director Sean Durkin establishes most of the drama through suggestion, slowly building a sense of dread and foreboding horror, both about Martha’s time in the commune and her troubles adjusting to her new found home. One nearly unwatchable scene shows Martha finding solace while her sister and husband have sex, the pair discovering her curled up next to them as if it were normal.

Flashbacks to life with the cult in a commune set in the Catskill Mountains come from Martha’s waking dreams, and it is this dreamlike quality that pervades throughout the film. Cult lead-

er Patrick (the excellent John Hawkes from Winters Bone) is a dangerous mix of charm and anger, a volatile man whose attention wanes once he has deflowered the new arrivals, a wolf in sheep’s clothing with an ode to Charles Manson and Koresh.

Every female member of the commune must answer the phone as Marlene, who we eventually see taking on the coveted role of training new girls, who are drugged and raped in a rituallike act by the male members of the commune. Far from lingering over these details, Durkin’s clever script evolves into an examination of why we get lost in our own individualism, with Martha escaping one set of rules for another, and remaining just as vulnerable as she seemingly has been all her life.

LANA DEL RAY - BORN TO DIE Cameron Cornelius

ALBUM 2012 Label Interscope, Polydor, Stranger Produced by Al Shux, Chris Braide, Emile Haynie, Justin Parker, Patrick Berger, Rick Nowels, Robopop, Jeff Bhasker

38

Lana Del Ray was hyped to the moon as the ‘Q award winner for Next Big Thing’, indie pop princess with a self-described “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” style (whatever that means). Later found out to be a repacked millionaire’s daughter signed to major a record label masquerading as a fake indie label with an already failed run under her real name Lizzy Grant. Yet all hype, premature acclaim, and criticism aside, the real question remains … just how good is Born to Die, Del Ray’s highly anticipated debut (or sophmore, depending on how you want to look at it) album?

Though the album does feature Video Games and to a lesser extent Blue Jeans, the two tracks responsible for propelling Del Ray into YouTube superstardom (netting over 20 and 6 million views

respectively) with their authentic raw feel, the rest of the album is largely repetitive, unmemorable, and devoid of almost any of the qualities that put her on the map in the first place.

Initially, one of Del Ray’s main points of difference was her songwriting. On the surface, her lyrics often seem clever with a sombre sense of originality to them. She also flirts with some potentially interesting themes, such as ideas on feminism and the darker side of the American dream. Yet when every song is saturated in too much melodramatic over-production, these lyrics soon begin to feel contrived and the songs soon become unmemorable, often merging themselves into one long drone.

None of the other tracks are worthy successors to Video

Games or Blue Jeans. The raw imperfections that made these two tracks seem so unique are gone, replaced with a big-budget super-slick production that would make Britney Spears proud. Ironically, the album’s title track and first proper single Born to Die is probably the worst-case offender, sounding about as raw and gritty as a Toyota Prius.

By the time the album reaches its conclusion you feel as if you have listened to just another pop album rather than, as the hype behind Video Games and Blue Jeans led us to believe, an underground masterpiece from indie music’s next poster child. Besides the above two mentioned tracks, I would give this a miss

PSP - VITA Hannah Douglass

GAME Hand held Consol SONY Specs CPU – ARM Cortex-A9 core Screen: Front and rear touch pad Cameras: Front and rear cameras Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone Sensors : Six-axis motion sensing system, Three-axis electronic compass Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support

The PS Vita console has been marketed as the “next generation” of portable gaming. Though I think it’s a “next generation” portable console for “next generation” humans, ones with enough thumbs to incorporate the many, many buttons this thing has.

Touch screen, rear touch pad, two analog sticks, four directional buttons, the Playstation trademark four action buttons and two bumpers at the top of the machine is quite the handful. I’ve come to the conclusion that more thumbs are needed. And bigger hands. My hands aren’t exactly small, but the touch screen is just too big to reach the centre of the screen easily.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss has been one of the Vita’s most talkedabout games, with generally favourable reviews from online gi-

ants such as IGN and Metacritic.

I’m not entirely sure I was playing the same game that received such good reviews.

Golden Abyss has the feel of a person wearing all their best clothes at once. It incorporates as many of the Vita’s features within the smallest possible time frame, and isn’t any better for it.

Within the space of a minute I found myself using analog sticks, action buttons, touch screen and both bumpers. The experience felt, well, clunky, particularly the touch-screen actions, which are unnecessary. The menu position down the side of the screen is clever but the other interactions, in the centre of the screen, were heavy-handed and too far away from either hand. This resulted in a stop-start feel to what should have been an intense, fast-paced,

flowing scene. The adrenaline is further sucked out of the game with mechanics that make it really too easy for the player. If the floor is going to collapse because it’s on fire, it shouldn’t wait for you to be clear to do so.

I am also confused as to the target audience here. The Vita, being a portable gaming device, is typically popular with younger, earlyteen gamers, but this game seems like a plea to the older gamers to get involved on Sony’s newest creation.

There is an upside though. The graphics are stunning, giving the game a cinematic feel throughout. The inclusion of collectables in each chapter is a major plus for Golden Abyss too. But, even taking into account the rich, everpresent storyline, this just isn’t enough to win me over.

Valuable Goods At Allpress it’s all about flavour...

This fanatical obsession involves choosing the best possible beans, using innovative roasting technology, training baristas and the expertise of our people.

For those who truly value flavour.

Brewing at Tussock and Museum Cafés

www.massivemagazine.org.nz

39

CLASSIFIEDS CMTATS! Thinking of starting the uni year with some fresh ink?

Add me on facebook or hit me up in Wellington’s Cube at 4B for an insight into my previous work or to view my current tattooing portfolio.

Specialising in custom black ink calligraphy and Ta Moko id be keen to help you out with a sick design and get some ink into your skin.

Coen Mitchell 4B the Cube Wellington First year in Fine Arts.mail editor@massivemagazine.org.nz or phone 04 801 5799 ext 62068.

FLAT FOR RENT ON WEBB STREET Warm, sunny, safe and secure, 5 bedroom apartment available for rent. Big rooms all with have double wardrobes. 2 bathrooms make for easy living and a deck is great for entertaining. So close to Massey and Victoria University. $900 per week Call 021 283 8533

TEXT BOOKS FOR SALE:

Communication Between Cultures 6th Edition by Samovar, Porter, McDaniel. In good condition.

Used for Introduction to Cross Culture Communication first year. $30 Media & Society 4th edition by O’shaughnessy & Stadler. Good condition. Used for Introduction to Media Studies first year. Unsure if current edition used on course. $25 Cambridge Advanced Learner Dictionary – Hardly used but a good thing to have around throughout study, especially during editing and publishing courses. $35.

Email: mattshand@hotmail.com if interested.

Year 2 Nursing Textbooks Maternal Child Nursing Care.

2006 with CD. 3ed Wong, Hockenbberry et al. 4 ed 2010 is $210. $90 Chronic Illness and Disability: principles for nursing practice.

40

Change & Johnson. 2009 $55 Community as Partner: theory and practice in nursing. 2008.

Francis, Chapman, Hoare & Mills.

Was $87 new last year. $55 Year 1 Nursing books Mosby’s medical dictionary.

2006 (Bought for $97) $60 Microbiology for the Health Sciences. Burton & Engelkirk. 2004 7ed (bought for $70) $30 These six textbooks were my ‘lucky’ books, guaranteed to get you A+ for any assignment (if used correctly), when not using these books I got a C-.

“Wow Judy, I rubbed this book three times and got amazing results…it really works!!!”

All books are 99% free of bodily fluids, and pH 7.35 – 7.45 Phone Peter on 021 660 204 Marketing text books for sale All recommended / required for Marketing Papers. $50 Marketing research: An Applied Orientation (3rd Edition) Malhorta, Hall, Shaw & Oppenheim $40 Consumer behaviour: An Asia Pacific Approach Blackwell, D’Souza, Taighian, Minard and Engel A Framework of Marketing Management (4th Edition) -Kotler and Keller Please contact Georgia on 027 447 9069 if interested. Am willing to negotiate prices if need be.

1st Year Nurses!!!

Cheap Textbooks: Microbiology for the Health Sciences (7th Ed). By Gwendolyn R.W Burton and Paul G. Engelkirk $30 Steadman’s Medical Dictionary for the health professions and nursing (5th Ed) (Helpful throughout the degree for both science and nursing) $35 Development Through the Lifespan (4th Edition). Laura E. Berk. $30 (For Human Development. Slightly outdated but nothing ever changes in that paper so don’t worry) Text: 02102759681

CALLING FOR CONTRIBUTORS MASSIVE Magazine is your new university publication and is looking for contributors with a flair for the written word or a desire to write articles that will be the example of student journalism in New Zealand.

MASSIVE Magazine is the university publication for Massey University and will be distributed on all campuses across the country. It will be the largest student magazine in New Zealand and committed to providing content that is journalistic, interesting and insightful.

In order to ensure our success we need talented writers, such as yourself, to write: news articles, feature articles, creative non-fiction, essays, reviews and opinion pieces.

We target issues that are of national importance to university students so there is always a broad range of topics available, and we are always open to ideas from contributors.

For more information, or to register your interest email editor@massivemagazine.org.nz or phone 04 801 5799

SINGLE ROOM AVAILABLE

Would suit an overseas students Mt Victoria. Walk to Massey University – Walk into the city Already provided: Desk, Bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedding.

Share with a 21 year old fashion design student from China.

Weekly rent of $180 included landline phone and power.

Phone 04 9738299

SPANISH LESSONS Would you like to learn or improve your Spanish?

Take private lessons prepared just for you to speak, write and have fun!

Call me or text any time Ana 0221 522 774

FLATS FOR RENT 2 Bedroom Flat to Let 280 Cuba Street Very cool 2 bedroom flat, heaps of character, heaps of light, great morning sun and afternoon sun.

Gas central heating, gas cooking & gas hot water, modern bathroom.

All white-ware supplied FREE. Just $425 Per Week.

This is a definite must see – be quick it won’t hang around.

Phone: (04) 384 77 77 or 0272 777 777

3 Bedroom Flat to Lease 2/133 Hataitai Road Best Location EVER!!!!!!!

Very cool 3 bedroom flat, heaps of character, heaps of light, great morning sun and afternoon sun. All white-ware supplied FREE. JUST $450 per week.

This is a definite must see – be quick it won’t hanf around long!!

Phone: (04) 384 77 77 or 0272 777 777 1 Double Bedroom Flat 291a The Terrace Close to uni $396 per week.

Get up only minutes before your lecture and return for lunch.

No more travelling!!

This flat is modern and stylish, with as stainless steel fridge and cooker. Polished floors throughout.

Great sun, and balcony, gas cooking, heating and hot water!

Phone: (04) 384 77 77 or 0272 777 777

FOR SALE:

One complete system screen, Keyboard, mouse and computer. great for Design students Very powerful system and great Graphics.

Is just over 1 year old with a brand new 1TB hard drive (With the prices of hard drives at present due to the Thailand floods this is a great steal!!).

Specs: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2800GHz 9MB Cache CPU Gigabyte GV-R585OC-1GD Overclocked HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCIE2.0 ATX 2xDVI HDTV HDCP HDMI Displayport Graphics Card Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive.

Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 SB850 ATX Socket AM3 DDR3-1866 RAID USB3.0 SATA3 1394 Motherboard Motherboard ASUS CD / DVD Litescribe Writer Combo Drive Kingston 4GB DDR3 Ram. 24” Full HD 1080P LCD monitor Windows 7 Professional 64Bit Office 2010 Standard Edition Price: $1500 (ono) valued at $3500 Contact: Joanna 0273795278

WANTS YOU

www.massivemagazine.org.nz

HEAD SHOP SOCIAL HUB TICKET STAND FASHION STORE MUSIC VENUE CULTURAL INSTITUTION

5 HIGH ST / 09 303 2949 284 K ROAD / 09 379 2509 CASHEL MALL / 03 377 2949 PALMS MALL / 03 385 2949 355 GEORGE ST / 03 479 2949 97 CUBA ST / 04 801 6970 179 CUBA ST / 04 894 6971 131 MANNERS ST / 04 801 6972

AUK CHC DUN WEL

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