27th July, 2005: Waiting for the Fall

I've had a request to re-post some of the stuff I wrote back when I first started working with animals and had a lot more to say about it. The following is one of my favourites.

****************

I wish I were a painter. So I could paint a picture for you. A clearing in dappled light, under the canopy of a large twisted old bay tree. In the center of the clearing is a deer, standing very still, its nose just touching the ground. At the edges of the clearing there are several women, all standing very still, all watching the deer. It is very quiet. The woman in the background is crouching, sturdy-looking, middle aged with short graying hair. The woman standing just to the deer's left is wearing the same sensible khaki as the others, but her hair is blonde and curly, she has ear rings, she looks almost glamorous, she is glancing down at her watch. The two women in profile in the foreground look almost peaceful, and a little bit weary, their eyes fixed on the deer, who is looking back at them. If I were a painter, I could paint this with perfect detail. I would call it "Waiting for the fall."

We stood there so still and so quiet for what seemed like a very long time. I saw the vet shoot the dart, and then we closed in, and then we waited. She should have gone down then, but she just wouldn't. Its not her fault - in the wild, you have to hide your weaknesses as long as possible, especially when you are a prey animal. The vet. got two more doses of ketamine in her before it was all over. Then we tried to just drive her into the holding area, but she bolted the other way, and I was the one to cut her off that time. I should have just froze, then, with my arms out, making myself as big as possible. She was too far to drive through the door now, but I didn't think of that, so I just reached out and touched her on the nose, and she took off again. We cornered her again, and then the keeper said "everyone hold!" and we stopped, and we closed in. The vet. inched in painfully slow and got a pillow case over her head, and we helped her to the ground and into the net and that was the end of it.

There's something I just love about this part of it. Whether its cornering a deer or handling a fractious cat or finding that sneaky way to get a shot into a scared dog with the minimum of restraint. It takes a certain kind of skill that's so far removed from the technical side of the job, and it takes a kind of animal sense which can't really be taught. There was something particularly exciting about being part of this group of women working together to take down a deer. Though we weren't out to kill it, of course. We just wanted to trim its hooves, give it some medicine, and clean its teeth.

Election Day/ Guy Fawkes Day

Still trying to catch up on all that's happened in the last few months. Let's go back to November...

The first guests to arrive were my parents. The day they got here happened to be the day of the Presidential election in America. We choose to not get any television reception in our home, but I still wanted to know what was going on with the election. I heard JJ Murphy's - an Irish pub up on Cuba St. - was going to be showing election coverage all day. They probably weren't the only pub doing this, but the were the only pub hosting the American Democrat's election-watching party.



Patrons at JJ Murphy's watching the race

It was a warm cloudy day with misty rain on and off. We walked around the CBD alternately doing last-minute Celebration preparations and popping into JJ Murphy's to catch the tally. We were eating lunch at Offbeat Originals when we heard a cheer go up from JJ Murphy's down the street. When we went in to get an update, the place was packed. Obama had just won the presidency. Americans and Kiwis alike were celebrating. We watched McCain's concession speach, and Mom said how nice that the three of us were all together for this historic moment.



Parents looking hopeful as Obama takes the lead

It also happened to be Guy Fawkes Day, which is celebrated each year with a fireworks display over the harbour. As we walked the couple blocks from our apartment to the waterfront that evening, the fireworks were already going, and we could hear some kids nearby hollering "Obama!" It was an excellent display, with two launch points working in tandem from barges out in the harbour. It was easy to imagine the whole thing was a celebration of Obama's victory.

It is fair to say that mostly Kiwis are happy about Obama's victory. While American is not, in fact, the centre of the universe, most other countries do care about American politics, simply because they have to. American is still a powerful political and military force which likes to get all up in everyone else's business. And I think that if the world's population had voted in America's presidential election, Obama would have won by a landslide. Wellington will be celebrating his inauguration on the 21st with party featuring African and African-American music:

Kyoto

So we're going to Japan. It is official. We bought tickets today. I am excited.

This all started when Loren went to an international Magic (the card game) tournament in Auckland. He got 16th place which won him some money and an invite to a international tournament in Japan. (no, not enough money to cover the trip, but enough to help). That was the end of November and the tournament is at the end of February. Not much time to decide whether to go and how to get there. Last week I finally got a Kyoto guide book (that's the city we will be visiting). And now I can't wait to go, it sounds like a really beautiful city, and completely different than anywhere I've ever been. Neither of us have been anywhere in Asia before.



So. I am just going to pretend this is our non-honeymoon following our non-wedding in December. And remind myself that some people spend more on a wedding dress than we'll be spending on all of our travel expenses combined.

not ready to talk about why I quit my job

I think I'm finally getting over my 'seasonal jet lag' Because this Summer I am completely restless and in search of Something New.

Last Thursday, around 10-ish (translation: bed time) I turned to Loren and said "let's go do something!" So we walked out the door, intending to either jump on the first bus that came along, or just keep walking up Majoribanks to Mt. Vic.

Then we saw the Welsh Dragon Bar. Every time we walk by it, we say "We should really check that place out sometime," but we never do. So this time we did! This tiny pub is located in the island between two major thoroughfares, which always seemed like a bad idea. Also, the very unique-looking little building which houses the pub was originally a public restroom. Not to mention the only Welsh pub in town.

The place was half-empty on a Thursday, the staff were actually having a party for someone's last day. When we opened the door, there was no music playing, we almost didn't want to come in, then this guy said to us "It's ok, it's not a private party!" We got beers and proceeded to check the place out. The walls were covered in Welsh flags, photos of Welsh sports teams, and other Welsh-related items. There was a nice lounge area with faux-leather couches, and a little garden area in the back. A pair of circular rooms bookended the building, complete with domed ceilings covered in paintings. One of these was the pool room. We found the original schematics for the public restroom hanging in a dark corner.

In summary: funky and a little bit awesome.



Monteith's Black and a red-felted pool table

Then the live music started up, which explained the silence we experienced when we first came in. We kicked back on a couch with our beers, and listened to a damn good rendition of "No Woman, No Cry." And I thought: what better way to spend a Thursday night?



Looking through the lounge into the main bar. Those are Welsh (and Irish) flags hanging from the ceiling.

No, we're not moving back to America now that Obama won

This post started as a response to a comment asking whether I am moving back to America now that Obama is the president-elect. It was not the first time I'd gotten this question.

The answer, without hesitation, is 'no.' Bush was only one reason to move, besides the supreme court justices he appointed remain, as well as the damage he's done to the checks and balances on which the federal government was founded. And furthermore, America is still a place where a person like Bush could get elected, be a spectacularly horrible president, and then get re-elected. Where he could - just to name a few - start unconscionable wars, alienate all of our international allies, and turn his back while Americans died in a flooded, hurricane-battered New Orleans. Where he could do all this and not evoke riots in the streets. These things still happened, and I can't change the fact that I lost faith in the American people, and became ashamed to be an American.

There's also the fact that I like it here in New Zealand, I love living in Wellington, and besides we made a decision to move here indefinitely regardless of the outcome of American elections. And I must also mention that I am so tired of moving, of uprooting, of saying good bye to people. I'm done. We're staying. We'll be signing up for citizenship in a few years, and a re-shuffling of American politicians isn't going to change that.

Yes, it was a great moment in American history when Obama won. Sure, it was a great moment to be an American. But I am an American only by heritage now. We did, of course, notice that Bush's term was almost up when we moved. We did know the next president could be a Democrat. But you know what? There are nine Green MPs in New Zealand's parliament right now, and we helped make that happen. And while the NZ government has just shifted to favour the more conservative party here in NZ (after nine years of a female-led Labour government), the 'conservative' National party is still more liberal than American Democrats. Including Mr. President-Elect Obama.

Turned out I had a lot to say on that subject. I guess I'm feeling a little defensive. I think a lot of people didn't really believe we'd move here, and a whole bunch more didn't think we'd stay. And what with me quitting my job, I'm realising a lot of my co-workers had similar assumptions. Since the word got out that I'm leaving, every co-worker I've talked to about it has in their own way asked if I'm leaving the country.

Oh yeah, quitting my job. I guess I should write a post about that one of these days.

Going Green - Part II

And so, living in the capital, as we do, and being excited about New Zealand's system of government, we decided to get involved.

So I registered my interest in volunteering for the Green Party. Turns out, what with the campaign being only six weeks long, there's not a whole lot of volunteer work that needs doing. But I have participated in a couple of events.

The first was an event to announce the Green's platform on transportation. They got a bus parked in a big open space by the waterfront, next to it they had volunteers line up fifty cars. Next to that they had volunteers line up fifty bicycles. The idea was to get a visual on how much more space cars take up on the road. So we showed up with our bicycles and participated. After they did othe photo shoot, they had us do a couple laps around the parked bus and cars. Then Jeanette Fitzsimons, co-leader of the party, gave a speech outlining their new transportation policy. The Wellington wind was up to it's usual mischief, and poor Ms. Fitzsimons looked more than a little wind-blown by the end of it. But such things happen when you're a Wellington politician. Here's one of the photos from the event:



The event made 2nd page of the local paper. They used a photo of Ms. Fitzsimons with the bus and cars in the background.

Believe it or not I still have plenty to say on the topic of politics and New Zealand. More to come.. next time.

Going Green

My goodness, I guess it's about time I talked about New Zealand politics a little. It is, after all, one of the things that attracted us to this country. There are a lot of things about the way government runs here that are very different from the States. I just want to highlight some points of interest.

New Zealand is a parliamentary democracy.
Kinda like England. Members of parliament (MPs) are elected. They are generally analogous to the the congress and house of representatives in the states. There's a Prime Minister (PM), who is usually the leader of the party holding the largest amount of seats in parliament. The PM then forms a government (Americans, we're now talking the equivalent of the "Executive Branch") and picks cabinet members, who are also MPs. That's the basics of what a parliamentary democracy looks like. I'm not going into details on this point.

New Zealand has a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) Voting System
This is where things get interesting. New Zealanders get two national votes. One, they pick among the MPs who are running in their district. Two, they vote for a political party in general. The party votes are counted up, and they will determine the proportion of each party represented in parliament. I'm not going to go into all the weird details of how the hell you go about making this work, see this handy wikipedia article for details.

The point is, while there are two major political parties in New Zealand, any party that gets 5% or more of the party vote gets representation in parliament. (also, any party which gets even one MP elected in a district gets representation). Why does this matter? Well for starters, say you're an American, and you don't really like either the Democrats or the Republicans all that much. In fact, there's this third party - perhaps the Green Party - that most closely represents your views. But if you vote for the Green presidential candidate, you might as well throw away your vote. It won't mean a damn thing, will it? Say the Greens have the support of 7% of the voting public (the current situation in NZ). If that 7% vote Green, in the American system, it won't accomplish a damn thing. In fact, probably a lot of them will vote Republican or Democrat instead, just to feel like they've done something useful. In New Zealand, those 7% can go ahead and vote Green, it will mean that 7% of parliament's MPs will be Green.

What can the Greens accomplish with just 7% of parliament seats? A lot more than you'd think. There are currently 9 political parties represented in NZ's parliament. Neither of the major parties - Labour and National - have a majority of the seats. That means that neither of the major parties can accomplish a thing without forming coalitions with the minor parties. (Check out Parliament NZ's site for a run down of the current MPs).


I have for a while felt that the Green Party most closely represents my values. Not only are they advocates on environmental issues, but they take a strong stance on human rights as well. And what's the coolest, is that they are a global party. While each country's Green Party is autonamous, they are all part of the global greens network. Not only is this just cool, but it speaks to the universality of their principals. In case you were wondering what those principals are, take a look at the Global Green Charter.

The point I am slowly getting to, is that I am looking foreword to voting in New Zealand's national election this year. I can't wait to vote Green, and feel that my vote actually counts.

I am not nearly finished with this topic, but for now I'll leave you with this lovely image from The Green Party of New Zealand's campaign: