To keep the wheels rolling while I attempt to balance work and other commitments with this blog I’ve decided to start posting some writing I did back when I became politicised in the early days, which got me wondering how I did become politicised…
With an apolitical upbringing, and although I do remember holding some pretty strong political views throughout high school, I hadn’t paid attention to all that much besides getting into trouble and girls up until this point.
It was shortly before the 1999 general election, I had just finished a highly readable book, Eating Safely in a Toxic World, by Sue Kedgley, and I was about to vote for the first time in an election. I had narrowed my choices down to the Greens or ACT. With a toss of the coin and luck on my side I made the right decision. When the Greens’ won a bunch of seats that year, including one for Nandor Tanczos, a South African Hungarian Rastafarian Kiwi, it spurred me on to go find out what was happening locally and see if they wanted any help. With a new found optimism in politics I was soon writing too many letters to the editor of the local rag and began writing and publishing the local Green Party newsletter, GreenGauge, and a new but short-lived Central Province newsletter, GreenVine.
It wasn’t long before I was being trained up to take over from local member Angie Denby as Executive Networker for the Central Province; it was a rewarding experience being on the Green Party Executive. Somewhere around this point I stood in elections for my local city council, not long after which my parents kicked me out of the country, buying me a one-way ticket to London (well two actually, I missed my first flight). With Green Party ties still strong and unwavering optimism in parliamentary politics I stood for parliament in the 2002 general election while in London, campaigning for expat votes and participating in my first debate since I was about 12, with Ken Shirley, Tim Barnett and other politicians. It was easier than I thought it would be; many in the audience appreciated what they said was refreshing honesty in the face of seasoned politicians. I like to think I helped Mike Ward get into parliament, although I think I forgot to vote myself!
The world changed quite a bit around this time, with the ‘what goes around comes around’ attacks on the U.S.
I experienced my first (powerless) mass demonstration, against the invasion of Iraq, which partly culminated in me writing why I’m off to Iraq on on 1 January 2003.