Fighting the good fight in Dunedin

Dunedin: My Dunedin, how I love thee.

This is no cheap, physical infatuation, though I adore your pink, ruddy faces, and love the thick, hairy calves on your men and women, calves both utilitarian and deeply erotic.

No.

This beguilement is based on your indomitable spirit.

It is based on your ability to pull together in a time of crisis, to lobby for your rights when the powers of the establishment attempt to wrest them from your spotty, chubby little arms.

That is the one irresistible quality that draws me to your door, a single rose in one hand and a page of self-obsessed romantic poetry in the other.

Because despite all evidence to the contrary, you knew that being forced to pay 5c for plastics bags at the supermarket was an injustice so wrong it just had to be countered.

That was at the heart of the energy you dragged from deep within, and that was where you placed that energy, rather than worrying too much about the injustice that is brought to you daily on your television.

Just as a comparison, to remind yourself how great is your suffering compared to those close by, take in Witness: Lonely Boy Richard today at 8am on Stratos.

An intimate account of Aboriginal man Richard Wanambi's journey to jail, Lonely Boy Richard follows his life with his family in Yirrkala, in northeast Arnhem Land.

Yirrkala is an Aboriginal community experiencing the serious social problems of alcohol abuse and violence that are threatening to erode family and community life.

Richard Wanambi has committed a terrible crime, and Lonely Boy Richard presents the human story behind the headlines.

Those headlines include outrage over the introduction of mandatory sentencing in the Northern Territory in 1997, prison numbers that almost doubled as adults were jailed for their first offence, no matter how petty, and juveniles for their second.

It is no surprise that Aboriginal people were the group most affected by the controversial new laws.

Laws almost as bad, Dunedin, as the rules forcing you to pay for plastic bags.

One day, perhaps, a documentary-maker will pick up on the story of what Foodstuffs South Island retail general manager Alan Malcolmson described as a small but vocal group of customers who opposed the plastic bag charge, and managed to change the policy.

Never mind that plastic bags devour resources, litter the countryside, fill dumps, pollute oceans and strangle sea life, and that such a small charge was one small and simple thing that could be done to help the environment.

Never mind that the human energy used to change that policy could have been used to fight real injustice on our doorstep.

Never mind that our supermarkets crumbled like week-old stale bread at the first sign of opposition.

You fought injustice and won, Dunedin, my Dunedin.

You got your way.

 

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