Newsgroups: alt.angst
Subject: Living in GodZone (was Re: Damned if you do, damned if you don't...)
From: kilroy@acme.gen.nz (earthbound misfit, I)
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 10:31:58 GMT
Reply-To: kilroy@acme.gen.nz (earthbound misfit, I)
 <1992Jul23.095708.3307@acme.gen.nz> <1992Jul22.163809.26879@microunity.com>
Organization: ACME BBS - Public Access Usenet, Palmerston North, New Zealand

ericm@microunity.com (Eric Murray) writes:

> kilroy@acme.gen.nz (some other guy) writes:
> 
> >ObAngstIII: And when he asked me if I'd enjoyed crawling to work in the
> >            typical Massey traffic jam at 7:45am, I replied that I hadn't in
> >            the slightest, and I presumed that he'd been asleep at the time,
> >            and cast minor aspersions on his parentage. Oh no, he replied, he
> >            hadn't been *asleep*. And he laughed. Bastard!
> 
> Shit!  There's traffic in NZ?  Another fantasy blown to hell.

I'm afraid so. The Great Massey Traffic Crawl is quite spectacular,
especially for such moderate sized city (for NZ - anywhere else you'd
probably call it a large town). Taking 45m to travel a distance that should
take about 7 is no fun at all.

Picture this: on one side of the Manawatu River you've got most of Palmerston
North, population around 70,000. On the other side of the river you've got
Massey University (approx 6000 internal full-time students I think), our
local part of what was formerly the DSIR (Dept of Scientific & Industrial
Research), the DRI (Dairy Research Institute), and a small amount of housing
(mostly moderately expensive). So over *here* is where lots of people live,
and over *there* is where lots of people work. Every morning, between 7:45
and 9:15am, all those people try and get from *here* to *there*, and all over
the *single* road bridge crossing the Manawatu River within 15 miles in
either direction. 

As you can imagine, the result is lots of traffic travelling very slowly from
here to there. It's a great deal of fun. And then we get to do it all again
coming back in the evening.

> For the lst ten years I've had this image of New Zealand as a peaceful
> quiet place with few people.  I've thought that when it gets too
> crowded and miserable in California, and all the wilderness is
> destroyed, and American politics gets too fascist and the brownshirts
> are goose-stepping in the streets and they're putting people like
> me in 're-education' camps that maybe, just maybe, they'd let
> me into New Zealand and I could live out my life shearing sheep
> in a country full of women with unbearably sexy accents.

You're kidding, you *really* like the accent? Have you ever heard of Lynn of
Tawa? This astounds me, I spent 2 weeks in California last year visiting some
friends, and one thing that I discovered upon my return is how horribly rural
the NZ accent sounds. I thought Australians were bad but New Zealanders sound
much, much worse. (ahh, that great Kiwi Cultural Cringe). Naturally I thought
California was great and I want to live there (and I'm a sucker for women
with foreign accents, especially Californians). The standard human problem -
we desire what we don't have and exaggerate the benefits while ignoring the
problems.

Actually NZ is getting to be a depressing place to live. Like the US we
endure term after term of mickey mouse government that doesn't care what the
people want, the economy's extremely depressed, and like many western
societies we're stuck with a largely WASP population running things. The
dominant NZ culture is one of rugby, racing, and beer. The men are brought up
to me sexist, racist, and thick. The women are taught to be submissive
housewives and mothers. The overall moral tone, apparently like everywhere
else, is that of middle-class conservatism.

I actually belief that, theoretically at least, the citizens of the US enjoy
more freedom of speech. It's not a marked difference, and most of the people
in society wouldn't recognize there's a problem, but as always it's on the
fringes where these things matter.

Oh, and shearing sheep is *really* bad for the back.

> I guess not.  At least not the part about few people, anyhow.
> They probably wouldn't let me in anyway.  I might accidentaly bring
> in whatever disease it is that makes mainstream American culture
> vapid and shallow.

We don't have that many people, with a total population of 3 million we're
out-numbered by the sheep (60 million). There's a lot of real nature left,
and it's great, but then again some of the good bits are recognised as such
and exploited for the tourist potential.

Your chances to get into the country are reasonably good. Of course, don't
expect much chance of a job once you get here, and the weather isn't as great
as California (if that's where you are) - even when we do get sunshine you
can't enjoy it due to the higher UV levels.

> Well, at least y'all get all sorts of sexy motorcycles that we can't
> buy here in the People's Republic of California.

Really, like what? Is that an emissions control problem?

				- k
				(all this from a white, middle class
				 sheep-farmer's son. You really shouldn't ask
				 for my opinion when I having a bad lifetime
				 like this.)
-- 
Craig Harding            kilroy@acme.gen.nz             ACME BBS +64 63 3551342
"Jub'f Xvob?"