Murder on the block

One of the reasons for leaving New Zealand last year was the massive increase in violence on the roads in the form of aggressive driving, tailgating, abusive drivers, extremely loud boom-boom driving and violence against pedestrian and cyclist traffic. This is the nation where the problem is so severe that they are seriously taking about introducing car-crushing boy racer legislation (See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10565577). Today we learn that there was an effective murder by road-rage on my old block outside my old places of work.

It transpires that a 78-year-old Te Atatu grandfather was violently beaten following a minor crash on Carrington Rd, the artery of the former Rt Hon. Helen Clark’s Mt Albert, at about 7.50 am on April 6. He subsequently died. “Police have now launched a homicide inquiry.”

Crossing this road was always like running the gauntlet due to violent driving; so much so that a 40 kmh school zone was installed in 2008. Mothers in armoured SUV dropping off kids at school hours and Unitec students late for lectures contributed to the war zone feel of the strip. The fact that children walk along this street on their way to school made little difference to driver behaviour, except at rush hour when it was so bumper to bumper, it was to be avoided. Forget stranger danger; the danger is black and on wheels.

A 27-year-old student from the Pacific Islands in a black BMW responded aggressively after a minor altercation with the other drivers’ Nissan van. And kids from the local primary school were witnesses. “There was just a lot of blood. His eyes were closed, he was just breathing heavily.” See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10565868.

The equivalent of this in Melbourne today was a case of train rage. A passenger who abused a train driver at Flinders Street Station, probably after yet another delayed train, was left with a broken nose and fractured jaw (http://www.theage.com.au/national/train-driver-in-brawl-with-passenger-20090408-a0pl.html). Train delays/ cancellations occur increasingly often these days, though in general the delays are still minor compared to those I experienced in Auckland. Yesterday even an Auckland Regional Council chief was delayed on a train for 2 hours in one such delay (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10565613).

Easter roads remain obsessive on both sides of the Tasman. In Victoria, a heavy police presence on the roads over Easter will focus on driver fatigue during the heavy traffic long weekend: “the clear killers are speed, alcohol, fatigue, mobile phones and safety belts, so they’ll be our focus.” (http://www.theage.com.au/national/police-urge-drivers-to-rest-refresh-over-easter-20090407-9zmj.html). Well, strictly speaking safety belts are the opposite of killers, but then these guys are Aussies.

In Auckland, meanwhile, the regular Easter heavy traffic warning was issued (q.v. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10565893) – despite the costly Puhoi toll road which was supposed to obviate such warnings but has only resulted in massive queues. Will these people never, never learn? Ho hum. I still get riled though I’m far. Close to home, but far.

NZ’s ‘meth use the highest in the world’

Celebrities spearheading causes is, due to value ascribed to fame and the familiar today, likely to result in more successful outcomes for the cause, and more visibility. The Angelina Jolies and Leonardo Di Caprios have their pet causes, and these days in the entertainment industry, everyone believes in something and gets photographed wearing this or that coloured ribbon. Gone are the days where celebrities could merely endorse Lux or be the face of Revlon and that was their community engagement. Engagement with the world’s issues is required too, and a good thing too. It won’t remove obsession with those celebrities or stop paparazzi attacks, but it might allow them to gain publicity of a civic nature. Of course there are wags who call Jolie Womb Raider and try to debase cynically those who might be United Nations Ambassadors, like Audrey Hepburn or her modern equivalent Natalie Portman.

The closest New Zealand has to celebrity like this is, let’s face it, little stuttering Paul Holmes, whose daughter P has been a ‘P’/ ice/ methamphetamine addict and very much an object of obsession in the public eye, particularly in a country thirsty for real news that’s not about murder and retrials, the building of motorways or road accidents.

So let the the newly-formed Rotary-based ‘Stellar Trust’ hold their charity dinner at Sky City on May 16 to raise funds for its campaign against P. Let them tackle full on “tackle New Zealand’s dubious reputation as one of the biggest P-using nations in the world”.
(See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10562788).

Believable if probably photoshopped

The Trust came about out of a serendipitous union of motivated people at the same time and in the same mental space. Paul Holmes went in with Mike Sabin, a former policeman who campaigns full time against the spread of P. He calculates New Zealand’s meth use ‘as the highest per capita in the world’. Another dubious claim to fame for the nation that was once endless green hills, celestial rivers, towering glacial mountains and 66 million sheep.

Trust chairman Alistair Burry was pushed to the brink by New Zealanders’ sheep-like taking to P. “All the family violence that you see, all those poor babies and young kids that are being bashed. You’ll find that nine times out of ten there’s P in the home or in the environment. How long is this country going to allow this kind of thing to continue?” The country has waited an extremely long time for something concerted to happen via government intervention. Maybe fundraising for education and awareness of major social maladies can be seconded to the charitable, philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors? Or even outsourced to India?

Want to help out? Tables of 10 cost $3262. You buy a table for eight and bid for two celebrities like Lyn of Tawa’s Ginette McDonald, newsreader Simon Dallow (thankfully without Wendy his Punch and Judy partner), satirist Tom Scott or the Mad Butcher Peter Leitch to join you. There’s no word on whether you could bid for Millie too. To book a table go to www.coneystanleyevents.co.nz