When South Auckland decided the killing of the Liquor store owner wasn't enough, 39 year old Joanne Wang got her handbag snatched in a shopping mall carpark and run over to death in front of her 8 year old son. What has Auckland come to? I used to remember it as a vibrant cosmopolitan where people respected each other in their upbeat daily businesses but now (especially the south) it is wracked with p-producing gang members who do nothing but terrorise people to the extent of taking their lives, foul mouthed erratic drivers and bored youth that tag everything that's solid. And in the last two weeks there is an ominous emerging pattern of killings in Manukau that should be a wake up sign for worse things to come.
* Three murders
Saturday June 7: Navtej Singh, 30, is shot during a robbery of his business Riverton Liquor in Riverton Rd, Manurewa. He died in Middlemore Hospital the next night.
Wednesday June 11: Yang Yin Ping, 80, is attacked in her Manurewa home and left inside a wardrobe. She died from her injuries on Saturday afternoon.
Monday June 16: Joanne Wang, 39, is run over by a vehicle as she protested over her handbag being stolen in Manukau. She died early yesterday.
Life of a liquor store owner is tough too believe it or not. They depend on the success of their business for the future of their children and Navtej Singh had two children who were both under 10. He picks the poorer areas with worse crime because they bring the most customers. It makes sense doesn't it. But how much is a life? A life is certainly not worth the $2000 worth of prepaid phone cards that were burgled from the shop. A life is certainly not worth a handbag, whatever was in it.
But residents of Manakau like the place they live and don't want the media to tarnish where they've grown up in just because of a few pot stirrers terrorising innocent people.
"Manukau is the best place to bring up children because we have lots of places to go to and with the costs of living going up a lot of these places are cheap or sometimes free. We have the airport, Butterfly Creek, Ambury Farm, botanical gardens, Rainbows End, libraries, the biggest flea market in New Zealand, big malls, creeks, Totara park, Telstra Clear Stadium, Mangere fun pools the list is endless. Most importantly the people that live in Manukau are proud to be here and have a strong community spirit. Don't let a few bad headlines and people ruin our image. "
And on the other hand, its really not that bad when you compare globally. At least in this instance it's not a mass political killing or any scary fluff like that. New Zealand is pretty mild. And although it has one of the highest crime rates per capita, we're still relatively low on serious murder charges and things that really tingle your spine with fear at night. And as "Paul" of Auckland says:
"I've lived in manurewa all my life. It's alright and I feel safe here. Id agree we're probably a crime capital of New Zealand but that doesn't matter cos New Zealand has hardly any crime. Imagine if New Zealand actually punished criminals (im not even talking death just suitable sentances) and cops actually did work rather than handing out traffic offence tickets! We'd have the least crime in the world."
Hopefully its going to get better from now on in Manakau. It's now illegal for youth to tag which is super because they'll get fined anything from $200 - $2000 from anything as simple as a vivided scribble on a bus, and spray paints can only be bought by people over 18. I pity the juniors who still have science fair boards to paint! But I think as soon as the Manakau mayor recovers from his heart bypass surgery things will be hunky dory and we'll hear no more terrible news from South Auckland.
Hopefully.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
News
My life is a boiling pot of excitement ready to burst out with hot hot soup of dreams, hopes and thought...
One of the downstairs boarders we found was very obviously pregnant so we have decided to up her rent by $10 for reasons of inflation, price of living, etc we told her. Secretly tho its cause another person is living in the flat and not being charged! We wish her good luck on her uneasy and clandestine road to motherhood. May she come prepared with lots of nappies!
Sadly our gym ball of 2 and a bit years from a guilty boxing day shopping spree had burst from rolling onto our heater. Queer situation really, we were all occupied with the television so no one had realised that it mysteriously on its own accord rolled over toward the heater and burnt its backside to a crisp. Its now seriously warped with a huge hole on its underside and my brother's distraught as it was his favourite piece of furniture (certainly beats the $2000 leather couches!) so we're going to have a proper burial and a newer better replacement.
I'm currently supposed to be working on my bio report, although I cannot see any biological benefits for stretching your leg bones, so my page is whitey white filled with invisible ideas that will never quite materialise. Darn NCEA and its criteria needing concrete evidence and sourcing throughout the entire essay. Its distracting to the actual writing, and its not like I'll be leaving school and doing nothing but wikipedia'ing for my sources of info. Even my English teacher said only a University student would understand the complexity of standard based assessment. Its loop upon loop of rules and exeptions, standards, and achievement. It all makes no sense that to ace NCEA you need to learn how to ace the assessment than ace the topic you're learning.
And I have yet again dreamed up a far fetched plan that no one likes the sound of and I myself think I'm a bit mad for even thinking it up, but it should be fun to try and carry it out, if my will power takes me that far. All will be revealed if I decide to continue on with it. In the meantime I'll have to keep everyone in suspense...
PS: Smokefree Rockquest tomorrow night! Can't wait! I'm bringing my red carpet clothes i.e. tshirt and jeans.
PPS: I'll upload photos soon, my excuse is its too cold outside and my mums office is too far. Plus im busy all weekend obviously (blatant scorn)
One of the downstairs boarders we found was very obviously pregnant so we have decided to up her rent by $10 for reasons of inflation, price of living, etc we told her. Secretly tho its cause another person is living in the flat and not being charged! We wish her good luck on her uneasy and clandestine road to motherhood. May she come prepared with lots of nappies!
Sadly our gym ball of 2 and a bit years from a guilty boxing day shopping spree had burst from rolling onto our heater. Queer situation really, we were all occupied with the television so no one had realised that it mysteriously on its own accord rolled over toward the heater and burnt its backside to a crisp. Its now seriously warped with a huge hole on its underside and my brother's distraught as it was his favourite piece of furniture (certainly beats the $2000 leather couches!) so we're going to have a proper burial and a newer better replacement.
I'm currently supposed to be working on my bio report, although I cannot see any biological benefits for stretching your leg bones, so my page is whitey white filled with invisible ideas that will never quite materialise. Darn NCEA and its criteria needing concrete evidence and sourcing throughout the entire essay. Its distracting to the actual writing, and its not like I'll be leaving school and doing nothing but wikipedia'ing for my sources of info. Even my English teacher said only a University student would understand the complexity of standard based assessment. Its loop upon loop of rules and exeptions, standards, and achievement. It all makes no sense that to ace NCEA you need to learn how to ace the assessment than ace the topic you're learning.
And I have yet again dreamed up a far fetched plan that no one likes the sound of and I myself think I'm a bit mad for even thinking it up, but it should be fun to try and carry it out, if my will power takes me that far. All will be revealed if I decide to continue on with it. In the meantime I'll have to keep everyone in suspense...
PS: Smokefree Rockquest tomorrow night! Can't wait! I'm bringing my red carpet clothes i.e. tshirt and jeans.
PPS: I'll upload photos soon, my excuse is its too cold outside and my mums office is too far. Plus im busy all weekend obviously (blatant scorn)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
One down, 2718 to go.
Who would have thought I could have accumulated so many emails over such a short period of time?! Ok I underestimated, some of these date back to February last year... I didnt even know I was signed on to Snood newsletter... or that 500 people want to meet me on Tagged, Zebo, B4UParty, Personality Profile....... Gosh some of these are even semi important like things people really should tell each other in person: I'm abandoning my email account for this new email account because I sold my email to spammers for 'a free ipod' . ... I'm like halfway through now, 1783 emails to go! This won't happen next time twitches, I think its proof that I've taken procrastination a bit too far, a year and a half too far :P
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
World Environment Day June 5
To honour World Environment day (which was held in Wellington this year) as well as Arbor day which both coincided on the date 5 days ago here is a reminder that sometimes there are sweeter things than reading blogs on a computer screen:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are written by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914
-Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them. -
Exams are over!!!!!!!!
Today, is the last day of the term 2 mock exams of Hillcrest High School finishing unfatefully with Cambridge English. May someone up there have mercy on me and let me have 25 marks for my first essay so I can pass
I'm so happy I'm smiling! 18 more months to go! Whoo! Time flies when you're having fun waiting for your teeth to be free.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Technically, I should be studying
To kickstart my first lot of exams tomorrow I decided to browse the wider cyberspace for oddities instead of focussing on past NZQA turd-write on standard based achievement (no offense to youTrevor Mallard, but we sometimes feed our mouldy leftover bread to your cousins at the lake)
Oh no!!!! I left the heater on without realising! I swear one side of my face is roasting without my slightest slice of consciousness.
I contemplate why we had bothered with school today, the day wedged between a public holiday and the start of two weeks of pen-to-paper, mind evaporating into thin air rituals. But I've learnt something we won't be externally or internally assessed for today. In chemistry I learnt that moonshine is brewed from potatoes , in English I learnt the corner of grey st and clyde st didn't used to be a patch of bare land fenced off, someone bought the area and cut the old trees that was part of the heritage trail; and my maths teacher gave me a recipe for lemon grilled fish!
I come home and find I forgot to turn my laptop off and it had drained all its battery in 'emergency save mode' . I managed to recover the websites I was looking at over the weekend after spending the day at Fabric and Curtain barn :P
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4526370a4621.html are 'Ginger jibes' as bad as racism? Or should Simply Red stop pouting and get over it? Are the Gingers a race? And most importantly: do they have souls?
http://www.firebox.com/product/1109/Voodoo-Knife-Block I just love this website hehe Periodic table curtains, a banana guard, Freudian slippers, global warming mug, solar powered pot plants, hoodies for dogs, stuffed microbes, people who go into enterprise school and come out with too much spare time and no stable job! But none of these ultra cool inventions can beat the sheer usefulness of a shewee http://www.shewee.co.nz/ - enter at your own peril :P
My friend DOMini*cough* Kurt was dangerously close to making me think about the poisons of humanity and the wrongs of my every action. I felt every fibre in my body agree with him, while I snacked on my mini-pack of maltesers, crept closer to the heater and sent a text message. Yah consumerism sux. but u kno wot else sux? being rich and hot! its so hard! ppl r just so jelous !
I guess I should return to my revision. The digital clock is ticking to 8.30 tomorrow and my page should be filled with ray diagrams, not scribbles of lemon grilled fish .
Tata
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