Friends have started talking politics, and it's come up on mailng lists at work. You know what I'd like to see on NZ television? A local equivalent of Yes, Minister -- something funny and engaging that gave me some idea of how NZ government works (or fails to work). I mean, I wouldn't be filled with dismay to get something like The West Wing, provided that it was of a similar level of quality -- but I'm not sure it would translate very well. For example, I don't think NZ politics has quite the same "cult of personality" about the Prime Minister, and party politics isn't as weirdly entrenched as the Republican/Democrat split -- I don't think long-term supporters of any party demonize any other group in the same way that the Americans do.
Well, everyone thinks that Greens supporters are stinky hippies, and ACT members hate the poor, and the Progressives are fundies, and so on... but I think that's different. ;) Actually, it's interesting that it's the minor parties that tend to be stereotyped -- presumably the major parties have to be bland enough that they don't alienate too many people. :)
Anyway, it wasn't rehashed political debate that I was interested in -- it was more the process of governing, and the interaction between the civil service and the government, and the civil service and the opposition, and the party apparatus, and the media, and all the elements that mean that politics is the clash of people rather than ideas.
I'm not sure that there's a market for such a programme outside of me. :) But if it were done in the same way Scrubs approached it, talking to the people in the trenches and filtering the stories through a comedic lens... well, I was going to that it can't be worse than many of the projects that get funded, but a very wise writer once said that you should never aim for "better than crap".
However, since I have no ambitions to be a writer of screenplays, the point is pretty much moot. ;)
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I still haven't managed to make a web page with IMDB links and so on (owing to the fact that I'm more than slightly busy at work), but here's a list of the DVDs I currently own. My tendency to hang on to things, even when they're terrible, shows a bit here -- I can't imagine rewatching The Mod Squad, for example. And I was going to mark all the movies that I hadn't watched yet with a star, until I decided that it would be too depressing. :) Anyway, I figure that Jenni might want to use some of them for her Wednesday showings (though my meagre holdings pale in comparison to her volumous library :).
I'm tempted to order the "Thin Man" collection from Amazon, but given that my last order from them shipped on the 17th of June and still hasn't arrived, I'm somewhat hesitant. Also, I should be saving for the mortgage. :)
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Last night I had dinner with my flatmate (who's back to France early Tuesday morning -- 40 hours in the air!), and she mentioned that in Fiji she'd been served coconut chips. That is, they cut the coconut flesh into strips, deep fried it, and served it lightly salted. I can't make up my mind whether it's a brilliant idea, or a terrible one... but I now know why destiny arranged for me to buy a deep fryer. Oh, yes. :)
(We ate at the Nepalese restaurant in Newtown -- we were goign to go to Malo, the pacific-fusion place, but it was Mysteriously Closed. It was pretty good; reminded me of Malaysian curries, and my flatmate of Algerian food. :)
Posted by svend at August 24, 2005 3:00 PMI think the reason that Yes Minister wouldn't work in a New Zealand context is that, rightly or wrongly, people don't have such entrenched notions about the governing bureaucracy.
I'd also question whether our partisan party feelings are stronger than America's. But that's kind of peripheral to what you were saying so I'll let you off. This once. ;-)
Posted by: Hugh at August 24, 2005 6:39 PMAs someone who works for "the man" in one of the highly politicised departments, take my word for it - every day there are multiple stories that emerge that contain humour, drama, and tragedy. All the elements that you need for anything you care to make of it.
The people in the trenches of a government department deal with all sorts of people every day. There's volumes of material and it has occurred to me to write a book about it, but I wouldn't be allowed to.
Posted by: Jarrod at August 24, 2005 7:39 PMYea, I work for one of those departments too, although it's not highly politicised. But the myths about the Sir Humphrey-style mandarins take it to a new level. The thing that's chilling about the massive inertia of the British Civil Service is, I reckon, it's continuity - governments, even political parties come and go, but in its current form the UK's bureaucracy has existed for about 400 years.
Posted by: Hugh at August 24, 2005 8:25 PMHave you actually read the greens policys? www.green.org.nz they're actually quite good, espically about the student loan/uni education. Pity they way they want to make their money is by taxing the farmers. Stupid the way all the parties think that farmers are rich, and they should be taxed for every doller they've got.
Posted by: Sproke :0) at August 25, 2005 7:04 AMIn case I didn't make it clear -- *I* don't think Greens are soap-dodgers with their head in the clouds, or that everyone who voted for Peter Dunn is a fundamentalist loonie. (Or even a fundamentalist-but-otherwise-reasonable person.)
Political opinions are like bums -- everyone has one, but I see no need to wave mine about. :)
Posted by: Svend at August 25, 2005 9:13 AMYou have "Batteries not included"???
Duuuuuuuuude!
Posted by: A Dirty Hippie at August 25, 2005 11:25 AMBlandness is basically essential in a big party, since a big party's pool of potential voters tends to be "everyone". It's less true in a multi-party system, where "repositioning" of competing platforms on a largely irrelevant ideological axis is important, but you can examine the Australian system for a good example of just how "porridgey" the big parties can get; they spend all their time sledging each other or making big deals about minor differences in policy or just telling outright fibs.
Hum. Enough electoral systems for now mebbe?
Posted by: Trithemius at August 26, 2005 7:31 PM