From The Morgue

Went to see the delightful No. 2 last week. (It did well at Sundance so might turn up overseas, all y’all that are not in NZ.) It made me very happy. The film’s about a Fijian matriach who orders her grandchildren to organise a feast, at which she will name her successor. Cue lots of arguing from a large and well-used ensemble, featuring a whole bunch of business that made me grin happily. Ruby Dee as the matriach was wonderful, a beautifully layered performance that won enormous sympathy despite being fractious, difficult, and often deliberately contradictory.
It’s a great piece of Kiwi cinema – and if I’m not mistaken, the first film to really put the Pacific Islander Kiwi experience on the big screen?
I hope that I one day create something that will bring about as much happiness as this brought about in me – an artistic creation that just hits you with the pure good vibe. I loved it. Go see it.
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I watched the Oscars. I feel dirty. But I loved it. Even though I sucked. But that’s part of why I love it. Oooh yeah.
Also saw Syriana recently. That’s a whole damn post to itself though. Now I must go and write in ‘New Zealander’ on my census form, or not, depending.

Last night finally made it along to semi-infamous ‘forgotten films’ night with Pearce/Chris/Ed. Watched wonderful The Red Shoes and demented The Reflective Skin. There was a mummified dead baby. It was the hero’s best friend. Yes.
Ethnicity talk continues in comments to previous post. Interesting stuff. Responses percolating.
I am about to watch the Oscars. I have alcohol. There might be the odd post over on my livejournal. Perhaps.

Warning: contains footnotes!
There’s been a lot of talk this week in New Zealand about the ethnicity question in our coming census.(1) The question asks ‘Which ethnic group do you belong to?’ and allows you to choose more than one group.
The stoush comes about because the first option is ‘New Zealand European’. This is understood by everyone to mean ‘white New Zealander’. However, ‘NZ European’ is widely disliked as a description. As a result, emails have been widely circulated that ask recipients to tick the ‘Other’ box and write in ‘New Zealander’ (2).
There is some depth of feeling about this issue. It gets into some complicated issues surrounding New Zealand’s sometimes-fraught identity politics.
What is the question trying to achieve? Could it be phrased better? What is ethnicity anyway? Why do people care?
Who Are All These White People Anyway?
The ‘NZ European’ category is clearly an attempt to measure the size of New Zealand’s white population. It is understood as such by everyone, and I would be astonished if anyone seriously claimed that it was inappropriate to try and measure this.
The fact is, many people are reluctant to identify as ‘NZ European’.(3) Could, hypothetically, the category be renamed?
There is, in fact, already a perfectly correct label for New Zealand’s white indigenes – the Maori word pakeha. Sadly, this word would never fly in a census, as it has been identified in the popular mindset as a derogatory term (often translated as ‘white pig’ or ‘white meat’). Of course, this is completely without basis, but the urban myth that pakeha is insulting is pervasive. ‘NZ European or Pakeha’ was an option in the ’96 census, but was removed for essentially this reason.
Why not simply ‘White New Zealander’? Somehow, I doubt that would go down terribly well either. So we’re left with a somewhat ridiculous situation where there is obviously a category worth measuring, but no generally-accepted label for the category.
Domination Games
A lot of the discussion I’ve seen about this focuses on a desire to support a unified sense of NZ identity.(4) I think that’s a worthy goal, but it would be a great shame if this compromises the utility of the census.
In any case, I think that something else is going on with the ‘New Zealander’ campaign and its obvious momentum. It seems to be an archetypal case of a majority-group normalising itself. White Kiwis are to be simply ‘New Zealanders’, whereas other Kiwis require a modifier: ‘Maori New Zealanders’, ‘Chinese New Zealanders’ (5), etc.
This is a linguistic power game used to assert cultural dominance. (6)
It implicitly asserts the centrality and preeminence of White New Zealand culture, while marginalising the cultures of other ethic groups as modifications. It’s the kind of language that gets deep into your perception of the world, and frames how you interact with it.
I think it’s a dangerous trend and it should be resisted.
So What Do I Do?
The census is attempting to ask a valid question, even though it’s doing it in a clumsy way. It would be good for New Zealand to have a helpful set of answers to this question. So I wish people would respond in the spirit in which it was meant. I’m going to tick NZ European, even though I dislike that label.
(Working towards the rehabilitation of ‘pakeha’ is maybe a helpful long-term goal, too.)
Some Footnotes Because I Like Them
(1) It’s worth noting that there’s a lot of mythology surrounding the NZ census. That ‘say your religion is Jedi Knight’ thing that swept the world a few years ago started here, too, gaining momentum from an urban myth that if 1,000 people wrote it in it would be added as an option for the next census.
(2) Much has been made of the fact that in Australia you can identify your ethnic group as ‘Australian’. Considering that Australia is widely considered a haven of racism and bigotry in New Zealand, I find it odd that an appeal to their example is seen as helpful.
(3) Asking for your ‘ethnic background’ might have been a less confrontational way to ask this question.
(4) Another point that I’ve seen in several places is that, because ethnic identity is based on personal identification (‘I’m Maori if I say I am’), then it is inherently unreliable for measuring anything, let alone real biological qualities, such as might be used for public health. This is a pretty weak argument. Human beings take our identities seriously – this whole email campaign is just one proof – and the number of people who will, frivolously or otherwise, choose an ethnicity that they have no ‘claim’ to will be vanishingly small.
(5) I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Chinese New Zealanders and how they’re New Zealand’s ‘third culture’. A significant number of Chinese came to New Zealand in the gold rush during the mid-1800s, and remained ever since. Never a large community, they nevertheless have been out of China for as long as my ancestors have been out of Europe.
(6) Note that this doesn’t need to be the intention of the campaign, at least not the conscious intention. More likely it has arisen organically from a number of components of our cultural discourse. For example, a common misconception among human beings is that ‘culture is something minority groups have’, while the majority group’s own distinct culture is invisible because of its ubiquity. In the same way, ethnicity is seen as something minority groups have. Identifying the ways in which this is an emergent, not directed, effect is waaay beyond the scope of this blog post. Maybe someone will do a Masters on it sometime?)
SPECIAL BONUS FOOTNOTE TO NOTHING
The email campaign has been pushed (and may have started with) Dick Quax, a local body politician who was born in Holland. This new-migrant status is an interesting point of data, but I’m not going to dig into it now. What is clear is he’s on to a good thing, politically, and is getting lots of media attention and flying the flag for, I dunno, something.
Also, I really want to describe the ‘call yourselves New Zealanders’ campaign as ‘POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!’ but… well, okay, I just did. Yay me.

I’m actually going to be able to indulge myself in crappitude and watch the Oscars this time out. Hooray! This year I predict that the stupid academy will do this:
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Joaquin Phoenix – WALK THE LINE
(Because the academy won’t like ticking for Greasy Reesey without also ticking for her co-star. Philip Seymour Hoffman ain’t gonna get it because Truman Capote is too much of a freak.)
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
George Clooney – SYRIANA
(The academy loves George, and they loved his Good Night and Good Luck, but they’re not gonna give him awards for that. So they can give him an award for this.)
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Greasy Reesey Witherspoon – WALK THE LINE
(It has to be. Oh well. She’s a great actress in great movies, she just gives off the noxious vibe of bad-attitude Hollywood to me..)
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Catherine Keener – CAPOTE
(Every damn year this one’s hard. It traditionally goes to The New Girl, which Keener sort of is even though she’s past her twenties. I think the academy will want to reward Capote’s acting, even though Phil ain’t gonna get the boy trophy, so they can give it here. Plus there’s that whole ‘we like To Kill A Mockingbird and Gregory Peck’ thing which, quite frankly, will seriously influence votes. Stupid academy.)
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
WALLACE & GROMIT AND THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
(the academy sort of take the credit for this, because they gave Nick Park awards when he was just starting out in the Short Film category, so this one’s a shoo-in. Plus, Tim Burton’s goth sensibility is, like, SO 1990s, and Howl is that weird Japanese looking stuff.)
ART DIRECTION
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
(Kong is out because the academy’s sick of giving trophies to Weta, and the movie didn’t play so good. I think this will be a Clooney-love thing, actually. Plus: they smoke in this movie. That’s arty and daring now.)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
(the prettiness of this movie is a good thing)
COSTUME DESIGN
WALK THE LINE
(just like last year, call it a hunch)
DIRECTING
Ang Lee – BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
(because he never actually made Hulk, you hear? That wasn’t him!)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
MURDERBALL
(tricky category this year, but I reckon this one’s the ticket. It’s awesome.)
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Don’t know any of the nominees. I hope they all win! Everyone should be a winner on the night.
FILM EDITING
MUNICH
(I am going with my gut on this one. Munich was an Important movie, and Spielberg is still technically awesome. Worth a punt.)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
JOYEUX NOEL
(It’s Christmas in the trenches! Awww. The historical story wins it outright, knockout blow, hee yah!)
MAKEUP
STAR WARS III: THE RETURN OF THE SITH
(because, you know, that thing, with the scary Hayden Christiansen and stuff. Whatever. It’s in a category with Narnia and Cinderella Man, I mean, geez. At least the academy *saw* Star Wars 3..)
MUSIC (SCORE)
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
(it’s a movie about yearning, and if there

Zacatecas Puppet Show
04streetshowzacatecas.jpg, 129K
Big version: 04streetshowzacatecaslarge.jpg, 640K
I arrived in the beautiful town of Zacatecas in central Mexico’s mountainous highlands during a street festival. There were a lot of wonderful things to see, but this was a particular favourite of mine – a puppet show rendition of Don Quixote de La Mancha. There were a bunch of Guy Smiley style puppets rocketing back and forth delivering rapid-fire dialogue to the delighted laughter of the audience, and during scene changes a woman in a bright flowing dress stepped forward to provide linking narration and kept the kiddies enthralled. It was great.
I like this photo because it captures the feel of the streets in Zacatecas during the festival, and because it rewards attention to detail. You can just barely see the woman, half-obscured by the puppet theatre. The people sitting in the sunlight are using umbrellas for shade – that sun was coming down harsh and hot. Because it likes the detail, I’ve uploaded a bigger version of the pic as well.

75,000 words. Woo.
*does the dance of yes*

Buh.
Weird headspace lately. Anyway. Don’t read this. You should go and read the latest posts over at my brother-moose’s blog, Undulating Ungulate. Just because.
I wrote a story for Chuck the other day. You can find that over on my livejournal. Warning: it is a gigantic waste of your time, but it makes me laugh like an idiot, so. Heh heh heh.

Although this week has been quiet for Iran-is-a-threat-to-world-peace stuff, I’m thinking about it again because I’m reading several books on Iran.
My take on Iran: the public is being sold on the severity of the situation as part of a general move by Israel/the US to get the UN, the EU and the world to isolate Iran.
The strategy is not to actually start another war – there is no resource to invade and conquer Iran, and Iran’s not in a position to move outside its borders – but to create a diplomatic situation that will allow Israel to conduct a bombing campaign on Iran without censure from the rest of the world.
Israel is champing at the bit to do this, and they know there’s not a thing Iran can do to stop them or retaliate against them. But the diplomatic costs would be huge, still. A bit more fearmongering around Iran is necessary before this option really becomes viable.
Whether or not any offensive action actually emerges is still up in the air. The US, holding Israel’s leash, will wait and see.

“The DJ who controls my life repeats certain moments. Sometimes I can’t work out why these moments are important.”
– inexplicable note to self, circa 2000
I was planning on going to this big free entertainment thing in Civic Square starting at 9pm. But I’m feeling antisocial. Still. So I’m not.
I bought shoes today. Brian J once told me “Never skimp on shoes. Make sure you buy good ones, even if they cost a lot of money.” This may be the only thing he ever said that qualifies as wisdom.
The title of the post is from another scribble, from about ’94 or ’95 when the internet was still kinda futuristic and cool. It means I’m even more futuristic than that. And, thus, better than you. You know it’s true.