Personally, I think I live in one of the prettiest places in New Zealand. If you walk out of my front gate and turn left, you can see the mountain. If you turn right and walk down my street a little bit you can see the ocean. If you turn right, walk down the street a bit, turn right, walk a bit more and then turn left, you get to a pretty sweet park. A boy who used to live down the road from me, Alex, and I used to hang out in that park. I only actually remember like three times that we went there. One was at night and he kept watch while I played on the swings because there used to be some really dodgy kids that lived down the road from us. The last time we went there we were both 18 and we shared a bottle of really, really cheap wine and it was very cold. The weather, that is, not the wine.
That's not the point. None of that is the point. The point is that I'm angry that this country has decided to fail really badly.
First of all, mining in the national parks and on Great Barrier Island. Seriously. What the hell and who the hell thinks this is a good idea? I would really love for my grandchildren (god help us) to be able to actually see what nature is. I mean, yeah, they may be able to spin some kind of explanation like, "Oh, don't worry. We're not going to destroy it ALL. There'll still be some bits that can be enjoyed." Whatever. Do it to your own backyard first and then I may believe you.
You know, I always knew I had left wing views on stuff. I once supported a peace protest in 7th form, did you know that? Well. I didn't actually GO to it, but when the idea was tentatively suggested, I told them to do it. I even helped organise some stuff. I've never really been the type who would be all, "IT'S TOTES A GOOD IDEA TO CHAIN MYSELF TO THIS BULLDOZER SO IT DOESN'T DESTROY *SUCH AND SUCH*." In fact, those people kind of scare me.
The other thing annoying me at the moment is crime sentencing in this country. I don't mean stuff like the people who were acquitted for breaking into the spy base (although I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this - vandalism is wrong and all, but spies are cool). I mean when people think it's a good idea to sentence someone for a certain amount of years for raping a woman, then decide that it's then okay to DECREASE the amount of time they have to spend in prison. OH, DID HE NOT RAPE HER AS MUCH AS YOU THOUGHT AND SO IT'S OKAY TO DECREASE THE SENTENCE? DID SHE DESERVE IT A LITTLE BIT AND SO THEREFORE WAS KINDA ASKING FOR IT?
Once when this happened it actually made me cry. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's because I'm a woman and this could happen to me at any time. Maybe it's because it's unfair bullshit. I don't know.
However, the case that has caused so much rage is Liberty Templeman's case.
" "I grabbed her other arm and she told me to f... off and then she punched me. After she punched me I hit her back, I think somewhere on the side of the face, she kept hitting me and I kept hitting her back. She kept yelling and screaming at me to leave her alone and go away." "
First of all, why did he hit her back?
Second of all, as per the quote I heard on the news tonight: "Oh, I thought she would tell on me for accidentally pushing her over so I beat her up." What the fuck.
Third of all, a minimum of 11.5 years? Yes, he may be 16 but seriously? He was given a MURDER sentence.
This country needs to get it's shit together before we destroy ourselves.
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