Some of these changes are small and understandable - we are becoming a much smaller world, after all, with everyone being constantly connected.

Some are nonsensical, such as the image of Santa looking ready for a blizzard in the middle of our summer, or teachers accepting school work with Americanised spelling because that's often what autocorrect defaults to.

Others, such as the increasing "celebration" of Halloween, are pointless and should be wholly discouraged.

Halloween always reminds me of the scene in ET where Elliott takes the titular alien out trick-or-treating, and his friend recognises Yoda from Star Wars.

It's parents taking kids out, an entire community getting involved and doing something communal.

All I've ever seen here in Hamilton is kids trying to skive free lollies from the neighbours with their parents' approval - and it annoys me.

I realise my image is skewed by my love of the very media I mentioned in the first paragraph, and I know Halloween originated with the Celts.

But now it has become this homogenised excuse to dress up and bug people for candy.

In a city where you are accosted for free stuff in the CBD all the time, it doesn't look great to be instilling that mindset in a new generation.

In fact, it goes against the incredibly important lesson we all teach our kids about not taking lollies from strangers.

Here we see people actively encouraging it.

I've watched as kids are sent out to harvest treats, and I think it's wrong.

In a city where high fences and privacy are highly prized, what will allowing kids to scab lollies end up doing to the communities we have here? Continue reading

Source

• Paul Barlow in Stuff

Paul Barlow is a writer and Film & Stage Crew member based in Waikato.

His father had migrated to New Zealand from China in the late 30s and ran a fruit shop with Barry's grandfather. He brought his wife and an infant Barry over from Hong Kong in the 1950s.

They rejected Sue out of fear for their grandchildren. What would Asian-Jewish-European children look like? And where would they fit in?

Sue's Jewish grandfather had fled Europe before World War II to the corner of earth farthest from Hitler's Germany. She understood what it meant to be different.

She liked all the things that made Barry Chinese: the language, the food and the culture.

"I had awareness of difference, so it was shocking to be road-blocked with our relationship like that. It was about cultural difference," Sue said.

Then, one day, before the couple left for their OE, Barry's mother told him that when they returned they would accept Sue into the family.

But with more than 10 per cent of New Zealand identifying with more than one ethnic group, the grandparents were right. Sue and Barry's children have had to negotiate difficult issues of identity growing up in New Zealand.

Their eldest daughter, Nicky, who is "very obviously Eurasian", has struggled with her ethnic identity.

"She has never managed to not be Chinese. She has wanted to be white, but she can't get away from looking and feeling Chinese," said Barry.

Nicky is engaged to the son of Taiwanese migrants.

Sue and Barry's youngest son, Richard, has taken a very traditional Chinese girlfriend - a real surprise to his parents.

"It speaks of the era that a 21-year-old grew up in and what was his playing field at primary school and his immersion with other cultures," Sue said. Continue reading

Sources

• Simon Day in The Dominion Post
• Image: Stuff

Simon Day is a reporter for Fairfax NZ

That a blue-eyed, pink-skinned, blonde MP, Todd McClay, tagging along after ex-Whanganui mayor Michael Laws, wants gang patches banned, illustrates the ignorance of even intelligent people when they demand draconian laws against whatever they dislike or don't understand.

I don't like what gangs do either, but I'd be tempted to join Harawira and wear a patch myself in protest against such a dopey idea if the law change ever happens. And when I link McClay's mission to advertising man John Ansell, another pink person, who wants a referendum linked to his 'Colour Blind' campaign, I wonder what planet they live on. Read more

Sources

• Rosemary McLeod in The Press
• Image: TV3News