bold, brave & belligerent

bold. Missjoestar is my sister. She writes things which I love, like this. Missjoestar lives in Wellington where she dashes around on roller skates speaking an entirely different language and sometimes breaking her arm for good measure. Once Missjoestar climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. Where was I? Washing nappies in a tiny flat in London. My maternal out law will insist upon every visit on asking if my sister has a boyfriend, whether she might get back together with the last one. I want to scream "My sister is way too cool for that! She is not simpering around looking for a man to complete her life. She is playing some kind of aggressive sport on roller skates and being the kind of cool intellectually onto it, informed and clever kind of person which is particular to Wellington. She is more than a womb and wife in waiting."



But I did not scream and I did not say any of those things because I practise not screaming and not speaking my mind when I play daughter in law for a few days each year. The fact is though, that the thoughts in my mind are true.



brave. There is an inquest in our town this week. It relates to the terrible, tragic death of a young man who Favourite Handyman knew. There was a court case relating to the terrible tragic death, but it didn't actually go to court as such as the lawyers got together and did some trade-off to avert the need for a court case. But the friends of the young man, the men who watched him die, die just centimetres from them, they did not get to say anything in the lawyers' trade-off. Today, one of those friends asked to speak at the inquest, upset at the picture of events painted by so-called specialists who were not at the scene of the death (not at the scene of the crime). Finally, his words went public. They are on the front page of today's local newspaper. A young man almost destroyed by the death of his mate, got to have a voice, stood up straight and spoke honestly, sincerely and with conviction. We are all proud of him. It won't bring his friend back, but it may be the beginning of some healing.



belligerent. I love the Hand Mirror blog. It is diverse, intellectually challenging and has exposed me to a score of fabulous blogs on interesting topics. This post on violence is my favourite for this week.

I think I need to get belligerent in an organised fashion about the cuts to the education sector. I noytice the National Government throwing their media release about cuts to the ministry of education in with perfect timing as the PPTA contract negotiations begin very shortly.