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Yupples and chippies
Dear TEARAWAY, What's the haps with you promoting all these yuppies careers,
for instance architecture, earth science and environmental science?
When do you cater for us youngsters who aspire to be solid working people
like chippies, brickies, and sparkies - all careers which do provide quite
handsomely indeed.
Do you want the lot of us to be yuppies who get stupid desk jobs, lose
all their hair, and get a bloody monstrous mortgage to but a 4WD Pajero
or Landcruiser, when the damned thing doesn't even see rough country unless
it rains on the lawn?
It seems TEARAWAY is an advertisement for SELECTED tertiary institutions,
when fewer people are attending universities by fees and meagre employment
opportunities kater on - RESPECTABLE YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER, Waiuku, South
Auckland.
ED REPLIES: Good point! We do need to feature a wider variety of employment
options. We're actually in the process of revamping our careers section.
Please note though: we are also very happy to be an 'advertisement' for
tertiary study. Thousands of pur readers do want to know about these courses.
By the way, you can't get away from study, with almost any job - and that
definitely includes jobs in the building industry.
Surfie chicks
Dear TEARAWAY, Iam a girl surfie and feel there should be more pics and
stories written about surfing girlies.
Don't forget, we are out on the bid wide ocean too - KYLIE, Newlands College
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Volleyball fireworks
Dear TEARAWAY, Before the holidays the secondary schools volleyball champs
were held in Nelson and there were some fly fly-as honeys from across
the country, all hoping to get into the finals.
Over 80 schools played over the weeks - but not is it just about playing
volleyball - there is a real unity in teams and this makes the tournament
the bomb.
In the girls' final Otumoetai (Tauranga) beat Avondale (Auckland).
When it came to the boys' final it was defending champs Aorere (Auckland)
and Nelson Boys, and this final was really exciting.
They started with some light fireworks to introduce the two teams, and
the spotlight would go on each individual player, and they would call
their names out (very professional).
The final went on for a couple of hours but in the end Nelson came out
the winners, leaving Aorere very disappointed - but the atmosphere that
the other teams created with their chants, either supporting one team
or the other, was exciting - LUCKEE, Christchurch.
Old, and good
Dear TEARAWAY, A lot of young people take advantage of the elderly (We're
Getting Older, April TEARAWAY).
treating the elderly bad and putting them down isn't gonna do any good!
The elderly have a lot of problems with health and money, and the government
is just making it worse.
We do need to give them the respect they need. They do have a lot of knowledge
about life. They should teach us what we need to know when we get into
the REAL world! - RESPECT EACH OTHER, Sunnynook, North Shore
True fat
Dear TEARAWAY, Our class has just finished reading The Fat Man by
Maurice Gee.
Then our teacher read us an artivle about some person saying the book
isn't good for teenagers because of the storyline and bad language.
What's wrong with a few swear words here and there? It's not like people
our age don't swear once in a while.
The person complained The Fat Man treated his wide and step-daughter
badly. What about people who get abused by their family?
The book deals with those issues.
If you didn't notice, life isn't just one big long fantasy, so I rest
my case - ANUPA PARMAR, Newlands College, Wellington
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Global Voice 'Shame'
Dear TEARAWAY, Your story on the Global Voice conference was quite interesting
- but their opinions about poverty surprised and disgusted me - especially
their 'finding' that poverty 'does not exist' and 'misuse of money' is
the only reason for children going hungry, and not having any clothes.
I don't think any of those 150 people would have experienced being on
the poverty line.
The Global Voice conference claims it was the voice of NZ youth. We;;,
it seems that it was the voice of 150 'young Nationals'.
They should have spoken out against government policy, such as the Employment
Contracts Act, market rents, low benefits, user-pays health, and job destroying
tariff cuts - the real reason for kids going hungry - and lobbied for
the restoration of the world's best welfare system, free education, and
the end to tariff cuts, to create jobs.
Instead the Global Voice conference lost all credibility by just metely
agreeing with the National government.
These 150 people should hang their heads in shame - BRENDON MILLS, New
Plymouth
The Global Voice Organising Committee replies: Global Voice was a forum
of approximately 250 young people between the ages of 13 and 18 years.
Representatives from all schools, a number of TOP's courses and community
organisations were invited to attend the forum.
Considerable effort was put into ensuring young people from a variety
of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds were represented.
The primary purpose of the forum was to obtain feedback from young people
about their perceptions of the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child in New Zealand. The forum was not designed to inhibit, constrain
or manipulate these perceptions.
The comment that there is no 'poverty' in New Zealand was only one of
many comments made by young people in the How Poor Is Poor? workshop.
The comment was clearly a comparison of poverty in New Zealand to poverty
in third world countries. Other causes of poverty identified in the workshop
included unemployment, discrimination, exploitation and uneven distribution
of wealth and power.
Solutions discussed included changes to the taxation and benefit systems.
The committee was both excited and impressed with the quality and ingenuity
of the feedback provided by the young people attending the forum. If anyone
wishes to see a copy of the full report of the forum they are likely to
be available in September 1999.
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