Spent three hours writing in the Ephelant House after work today and completed the first half of Ron the Body. I’ve spent a week now on this one conversation between the two main characters, and it all seemed to gather too much steam to stop today. Lovely. Although I think some of what the characters have revealed about themselves is going to – yet again – change what will happen in the second half. Oh well, that’s how the game is played I suppose.
Another step to a conscious Christmas – track your food miles. Here’s a nice Guardian article about it, from the UK perspective – but the notion still applies in New Zealand (where, of course, you can’t tell at a glance how far your vegies have travelled).
And there have been more comments to the original Christmas post. Very much worth your time. Also, playing in UK cinemas now: the wrong message about what Christmas is all about.
New Zealand has passed the Civil Unions Bill. This pleases me.
How did life get so busy?
2 thoughts on “End Of Half One”
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Are you really pleased about the civil unions bill?
Have you looked into it? Along with the right to get married it passes some pretty scary stuff. Like if you flat with a guy after two years you can be considered de facto partners?
I don’t know if this was axed from the bill or the terminology changed but it seems to me that it goes too far.
Sure civil marriages, fine, but from what I have seen and read it hasn’t been well debated in the house (and goes aginast majority opinion in NZ – so much for representing the will of the people, will NZ government go the way of the US only representing minority interest groups [like big business])? Has the tail already started wagging the dog in NZ?
I don’t mind the central thrust of the bill but it seems, from what I can see, that there are problems with it, and that the general NZ public throught there were problems with it. At least it could have been better debated. I accept that governments *sometimes* have to do things against the general will of the people, but then they should be even *more* sure about it and the ramifications of it.
It’s not just this bill either. It seems to happen reasonably often (look at the UK in Iraq for example).
How much should democratic governments, supposedly elected to represent the people if the country, be allowed to impose their will upon the people? How much does Bush represent the will of his people?
This is all stream of consciouness stuff really, just thoughts this has raised for me. In the end democratric governments will do what they do, and people will vote them out if they don’t like it.
At least that’s the theory.
Matt writes “Have you looked into it? Along with the right to get married it passes some pretty scary stuff. Like if you flat with a guy after two years you can be considered de facto partners?”
This is not correct. The following paragraphs are Sections that I am quoting from the Civil Union Bill at http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/gpprint/docs/bills/20041492.txt .
Unfortunately the passed Act isn’t yet on http://www.legislation.govt.nz, so I’m having to quote from the bill that was sent back from the select committee.
Section 11 Notice of civil union, and statutory declaration.
(1) If 2 people intend to {solemnise} [enter into] a civil union, one of them must appear personally before the Registrar and give notice in the prescribed form of the intended civil union.
[then…]
14 Solemnisation by Registrar
…
(2) During the solemnisation, {each party must,}in the presence of the Registrar and at least 2 witnesses, {say to the other, “I, AB, take you, CD, to be my partner in our civil union”, or words to that effect.} [each party must
make a clear statement to the other that—]
(a) names both parties; and
(b) acknowledges that they are freely joining in a civil union with each other.
As these sections make quite clear, there is no way for a Civil Union to be proposed without the concious actions of one party.
And then the Civil Union cannot become legal (be solemnised) unless both parties, in the presence of witnesses and the registrar, agree.
“Civil Union by default” is a myth.