*Surprise!* Farry’s f.u.b.a.r. Stadium not attracting first year Efts

BLUNDER CITY #DUD —AND THE STADIUM REVIEW AIN’T NO HELP

Ivy League Assaults: Dumber and Dumber due to UE failure, drunkenness, fires, civil disorder, better campus and study offerings up north and overseas?

AWAIT UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO PRONOUNCEMENTS AFTER THE MARCH MEETING OF THE HALLOWED UNIVERSITY COUNCIL

A ‘PUBLIC RELATIONS EPIC’ IS EXPECTED

### ODT Online Tue, 10 Mar 2015
University roll worry realised
By Timothy Brown
Fears of University of Otago first-year student numbers falling for the first time since 2011 appear to be realised, with “serious” vacancies at Knox College and Salmond College. About 10% of beds at the two non-university run colleges remain vacant and the Otago University Students’ Association revealed, earlier this year, the University of Otago could face a drop in first-year student numbers.
Read more

Both Knox and Salmond have undergone recent building upgrades and provide excellent pastoral care in quiet settings – who then, would choose a university-owned rough-house college if you were serious about career education.

What sort of undergrad student is the University of Otago attracting nowadays? Party animals? Generation Zero lefties? Discount ivy-leaguers (Kiwi-Asian style)? And how come accommodation at college halls is so steep? It’s an obscene weekly cost if mummy and daddy aren’t paying, so yes, way better(?) to camp out in the grunge and gunge flats of Studentville —or hey, move up the hill to sink the tone of City Rise, look at all those “historic-kick-apart” villas and mansions, incredibly suited to Face Book parties and upsetting middle class owner-occupiers next door. Cripes, at each former family or professional home there’s room to park “6 cars!”, yes, the cash-cow landlords will happily (just ask) destroy established 100-year-old plantings and gardens to lay down asphalt.

Welcome to ‘Absolutely Beautiful’, Dunedin. Welcome to the student ghettos, the broken streetscapes…. smashed bottles, lingering trash, burnt furniture, bouncing basketballs (all hours, Really Dumb like that), drying vomit and worse, weeds, untrimmed trees and hedges, a few kicked-in fences, more asphalt, flaking paint at once proud residences, stickering with satellite dishes and heat pumps, strings of poorly washed laundry draping house fronts. But who can forget the “Dunedin Sound”, of nights, drunken male yahoos, uncoordinated white trash hakas and ‘young girl’ screams, passion or torture, hard to tell. 111.

THIS is, Dunedin FOR Education.
Student loans FOR Banks and Slum Landlords.
Google Images: “castle street hyde street dunedin”

And Harlene, next! Frat Life starts in on St Leonards – just a quick ride from your Ivy League of diminished offerings, that overpriced BA, BCom or BSc.

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18.2.15 University of Otago: Toga Party 2015 #video
16.2.15 University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image
18.12.14 University of Otago —um Harlene, what you sellin’ now, girl?
12.8.14 Cameras in North Dunedin
1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
25.3.13 UoO: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder in Dunedin campus area
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
9.11.11 DCC has PR problem

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

John Key’s NZ spying on Pacific neighbours

██ NZ Herald: GCSB collects phone calls, emails and internet data from NZ’s closest and most vulnerable neighbours, secret papers reveal | Read the Intercept’s NZ story here.

Stuff: Diplomatic fallout / Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva: “China is on the radar … so what can we do?”

Rod Emmerson. Snowden revelation on GCSB (NZ Herald 5.3.15)

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How it’s unfolding today…

### NZ Herald Online 6:49 AM Thursday Mar 5, 2015
#snowdenNZ / How foreign spies access GCSB’s South Pacific
By Nicky Hager, Ryan Gallagher
In September last year, Edward Snowden said he had seen large quantities of metadata from New Zealanders’ communications while working in the NSA’s regional headquarters in Hawaii. He was presumably referring to New Zealanders’ communications intercepted during the Asia-Pacific regional monitoring conducted at Waihopai and other allied bases. The Snowden documents show how foreign intelligence staff follow a step-by-step process to access the GCSB’s South Pacific intelligence, including the metadata and communications of New Zealanders living, holidaying and interacting in that region.
Read more

READ MORE:
● NZ spies on its Pacific friends
● The price of the Five Eyes club
● Join the Twitter debate: #snowdenNZ

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### NZ Herald Online 9:54 AM Thursday Mar 5, 2015
Snowden revelations: John Key failing leadership test with terrorists-under-the-bed response
By David Fisher – Herald senior reporter
OPINION John Key worked to undermine the spying revelations before he knew what they were. Even before the New Zealand Herald approached his office for comment, he offered a “guarantee” the revelations today would be wrong. Then, exactly like those in the United States, he pulled out the terrorism bogeyman, presumably as some sort of cure-all for allegations of over-reach by our intelligence agencies. […] It should be noted that here in New Zealand, the State Services Commission urged the Government in July 2014 to make more information available to the public. […] There has actually been an improvement here by the actual intelligence agencies but the responses to the Snowden documents from the Prime Minister do not dignify the hard work done by some officials in that area. There should be no doubt that surveillance is necessary. Intelligence is critical. That is not the debate. What has grown in the Five Eyes nations, by stealth, is the extent of that surveillance.
Read more

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EXCLUSIVE: GCSB collects phone calls, emails and internet data from NZ’s closest and most vulnerable neighbours, secret papers reveal

### NZ Herald Online 10:33 AM Thursday Mar 5, 2015
Snowden GCSB revelations / Nicky Hager accuses New Zealand of selling out its neighbours to US
By David Fisher – Herald senior reporter
New Zealand is “selling out” its close relations with the Pacific nations to be close with the United States, author Nicky Hager has said. Hager, in conjunction with the New Zealand Herald and the Intercept news site, revealed today how New Zealand’s spies are targeting the entire email, phone and social media communications of the country’s closest, friendliest and most vulnerable neighbours. The revelations, based on documents supplied by United States fugitive and whistleblower Edward Snowden, expose a heavy focus on “full-take collection” from the Pacific with nearly two dozen countries around the world targeted by our Government Communications Security Bureau. The Snowden documents show that information from across the Pacific is collected by New Zealand’s GCSB but sent on to the United States’ National Security Agency to plug holes in its global spying network.
Read more

*****

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 11:40, March 5 2015
Snowden documents: NZ spied on Pacific Island neighbours video
By Aimee Gulliver
New Zealand is spying on its Pacific neighbours, sweeping up all information from the region and passing it to an American spy agency, documents released today show. United States fugitive Edward Snowden worked at the US National Security Agency (NSA) before turning whistleblower in June 2013, releasing documents to the mainstream media showing spy agencies were conducting mass surveillance. Documents released today with NZHerald.co.nz refer to the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Nauru and Samoa as targets of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
Read more + Videos

READ MORE:
● Opinion: NZ right to spy on Pacific Island neighbours
● Diplomat: GCSB must have a really boring job
● Live coverage
● NZ spied on Pacific neighbours – Greenwald
● Nicky Hager: Kiwis will be ‘shocked’ by spy claims
● Q&A – Spying and NZ

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### stuff.co.nz Last updated 11:30, March 5 2015
Snowden leak spying claims spark diplomatic fallout video
By Aimee Gulliver and Michael Field
New Zealand spying on the South Pacific and Tonga is “a breach of trust”, Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva says. Pohiva was “adamant that this is a breach of trust”, the Prime Minister’s Department in Nuku’alofa said this morning. “But it is happening all over the world. Tonga is too small to stand up to the ‘alleged spying’,” Pohiva said through the official. “China is on the radar … so what can we do?”
Earlier today, investigative journalist Nicky Hager said a series of documents leaked to him by the fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden showed New Zealand was spying on its Pacific neighbours to serve American interests and secure its place in a US-led “club”.
Read more + Videos

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20.9.14 Election Night
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17.9.14 John Key PM —real or fake? and one email
15.9.14 The Moment of Truth
2.9.14 John Key PM, plus and minus
7.12.13 Corruption in NZ Sport: Where has John Key PM been hiding ???
30.7.13 GCSB: National Party websites hacked
13.7.13 New Zealand: Salmond on democracy
21.3.13 Public service causing “paralysis of democracy” with OIA requests
26.7.12 ‘The Public’s Right to Know’ – OIA Review

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image

[click screenshot to enlarge]

This is how New Zealand Herald, via the National news section (it’s an ODT story and photograph by Hamish McNeilly), markets the University of Otago Campus Area to parents and intending students, nationals and internationals. Read the full article at NZ Herald.

Better advertising to reduce Otago’s student rolls we couldn’t hope to find.

Glad Vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne has everything under control.
Perhaps the VC could visit and apologise to the distressed student from George Street, hard at work today serving customers at the Octagon, who told me she and her flatmates ventured out on Sunday morning to find their driveway grossly awash with vomit.

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18.12.14 University of Otago —um Harlene, what you sellin’ now, girl?
12.8.14 Cameras in North Dunedin
1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
25.3.13 UoO: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder in Dunedin campus area
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
9.11.11 DCC has PR problem

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cameras in North Dunedin

Received from Lee Vandervis
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 at 11:05am

Message: The email below is what I sent to Critic in direct response to their questions as further below. Critic editor Zane Pocock’s ‘Editorial’ fails to include any of my responses and instead fabricates false quotations. [see even further below]
I did not say “prevent vandalism” or “I don’t trust you little fuckers”, but Mr Pocock’s ‘Editorial’ gives reason enough.

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—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 20:41:00 +1200
To: Nina Harrap [Critic]
Conversation: Cameras in North Dunedin
Subject: Re: Cameras in North Dunedin

Hi Nina,

For decades, various attempts to stop couch-burning in public streets have been ineffective, and ratepayers should not be forced to carry the annual burden of hundreds of thousands in repair costs, to say nothing of the equally unaffordable costs of fire-fighting staff, Police and ambulance services.
Video is now a very inexpensive way to combat unaffordable criminal vandalism hot-spots, but Dunedin North has been exempted for various spineless reasons. A very few pyromaniac vandals have been taking advantage of this exemption, some of them students.
The Police would have access to the camera surveillance as they do in many other parts of Dunedin. I would anticipate that the Police would act with prosecutions only on evidence of serious criminal offending.
Cameras would not be an invasions of residents’ privacy as they would be in public places where anybody with a cell phone could also record similar images. Cameras would not need to focus on any residential property as they are concerned with protecting public spaces.
Mr Baxter has suggested that I would not like cameras recording outside my house. The opposite is true. If cameras had been recording, there might have been a chance of catching the tagger who made an expensive mess on a vehicle parked in the street last month.

Kind regards,
Cr. Vandervis.

On 5/08/14 9:00 PM, “Nina Harrap” wrote:

Hello Mr Vandervis,
My name’s Nina Harrap and I’m a reporter for Critic magazine. I’m currently writing a short piece about your proposal to install cameras around North Dunedin. I was wondering if I could possibly get a statement from you in answer to the following questions:
Why do you feel cameras in North Dunedin are a good idea?
Who will have access to the camera surveillance?
Won’t putting cameras up be an invasion of residents’ privacy?

My deadline is 5pm tomorrow (Wednesday), so your speedy reply is very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Nina [for Critic]

—— End of Forwarded Message

[Critic text article supplied. Header and image – screenshot by whatifdunedin]

As reported by the ODT on Friday 1 August, Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis has called for video surveillance of Scarfie-ville to “prevent vandalism”.

There is a huge problem with this, and it’s because of how much students have improved their behaviour recently. Largely driven by a great effort from both the University and OUSA over the last few years, students have been working hard to correct a past prevalence of misdemeanours, all the while maintaining Dunedin’s reputation as an exciting place to grow up as young, energetic adults. The Hyde Street Party is now a well-controlled and safe event for students to let their energy off. Orientation is similar. Furthermore, the Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival even sees an effort by the students to provide something for the much wider community of Dunedin.

It has been a huge and noticeable improvement, and people like Vandervis undermine that. The clear progress in student culture needs to be encouraged. Taking several years of steady improvements before turning around and saying “I don’t trust you little fuckers” through a targeted invasion of privacy is counter-intuitive and stupid.

Vandervis is looking for a silver bullet when there is none. What there is, however, is a huge cohort of students who really do care about preserving the student culture of Dunedin. No, that doesn’t strictly mean binge drinking and fire starting. What it means is the conservation of a true student quarter and the existence of a true student town in New Zealand. Dunedin’s half dead without the University – the commonly held belief is that there’s not much else aside from the culture here to attract students.

As for privacy itself, the age-old argument that you don’t have to worry if you’ve got nothing to hide should have been abandoned long ago. One of the many oppositional points to this comes down to the sheer confusing nature of law. To the best of my knowledge, one of the reasons we have a judicial system is that a lot of legislative law is extremely convoluted, and a very large portion of our law is based on precedents set by judges’ decisions and not strictly written as rules, which is the common way of seeing law. Although our situation isn’t as confusing as that in the States where they literally can’t count the number of federal crimes that exist, it’s hard to actually know whether you live within the confines of the law or not.

And again, with reference to the States, sometimes people should have something to hide. Sometimes people should be breaking the law to amount pressure on lawmakers. Only in 2001 did Minnesota decriminalise sodomy, and thus, to a large degree, homosexuality. How about marijuana – there wouldn’t even be spokespeople for the huge positive change currently sweeping the States if people hadn’t lived illegally against an outdated and one-sided conservative belief system.

I also struggle to trust humans. People watching the camera footage will almost surely abuse their positions. They will laugh at people and they will put footage on YouTube (even though this would be illegal itself). This rounds out my final point: why can’t we have privacy for the sake of privacy? It’s fair to object to an invasion of privacy without even thinking about why you’re objecting to it. Going by Vandervis’ logic, should there perhaps then be a camera in each cubicle of any Octagon bar? The deadly assault earlier this year scared the shit out of a lot of people.

Otherwise, fuck it. You think students are apathetic? Just wait until power-tripping aggression makes things worse. I would hazard a guess that you’ll need even more security cameras keeping track of the student-spying ones.

Zane Pocock
Critic Editors

—— End of Forwarded Message

█ Source: http://www.critic.co.nz/columns/article/4231/editorial–issue-19
Editorial | Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10 August 2014 by Zane Pocock.

Related Post and Comments:
1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr