Camp Cope and Festival Falls Are Both Wrong - What we are facing is a battle of Subconscious Ideologies

I enjoy CAMP COPE's music and believe gender balance is an issue in music and festival lineups as well as radio and broadcasting. However, the issue is not purely one of being a woman although this is a huge factor! it is also about how different forms of womanhood are censored and other forms favoured. For instance, if Camp Cope were self-demeaning bimbos that were promoting some overtly sexual music that stroked male egos they would stand a far greater chance of playing on the main stage and radio. Why is this? because society at large does not want to empower woman and so narratives of emancipation, sexual freedom, and gender fluidity are squashed. The issue is bigger than a polarized battle of the sexes something Camp Cope may not realize for they are actually confronting perverted forms of ideology (streams of ideas within the subconscious of society) that reinforces the uncaring establishment of modern society. Institutions be they moneyed festivals or million dollar radio stations, wall st wilfully refuse to undermine their capitalist enterprise that relies on keeping people uninformed, ignorant and indoctrinated in a way that allows them to simply consume to feel better about themselves. To hell with woman's rights I'll just go to a music festival and get blotto or better yet listen to a cynical radio station like Triple J so as not to think about larger political problems that shape and form and impact my very life. The classic analogy could be Plato's cave being the establishment that wants people to remain in a cave of ignorant delusion, people thinking that they are free experiencing life through reason when really they are experiencing a distorted form of reality just like in the Matrix. In Plato's cave, people fool themselves into thinking the flames flickering on the wall are reality bu the establishment lights the fire that fools the people. Camp Cope could easily be perceived as a band wanting to bring people into the light and out of the cave or matrix ideologically speaking. The band in questioning the people and why they are chained up to ignorance, lobotomized and unthinking are calling on the fire starters patriarchy itself to let their people go Camp Cope are the shepherds that want to convert the wayward herd. But they won't because the people who have chained people up in the cave want all the power over the masses and why is this because to have power over people you need themto never question your authority! also you need to keep them ignorant so the become divided and fighting amongst themselves in pseudo or false conflicts instead of confronting the true enemy - peverted ideology - that many help propagate throughout society subconciously far more so than consciously - for the simple fact that they are not aware that they are biased and msyigonistic even though they partake heavily in these beahviours. Ignorant people attack feminism and in so doing they paradoxically harm themselves by reinforcing the societal structures of their own oppression. Woman as the most oppressed persons in society since time immemorial are naturally the true leaders of the new world order based on love and empathy, fighting and war is how many have tried to order the world to calamitous end. So to bring it all back into the musical picture Camp Cope are the anthesis of a shallow mainstream pop artist seeking to make it, their music is abrasive and imperfect, their music is jarring musical expression warts and all and the refuse head on to soothe the status quo and in doing so commit 'the worst act'. They openly question perverted subconscious misogynistic ideology and the real fact that the emperor is really wearing is no clothes, this being no woman representation in music that is anti-establishment. However, the truly sad fact from my subjective male perspective is that when I look around at male artists booked at festivals and on the radio, they are all buckled and emasculated themselves like mainstream female artists many of them promoting rather than destroying patriarchy as they are forced by unfair power relations to reinforce perverted weinsteinesque ideology that is hate personified or else face punishment alongside Camp cope through the violent act of marginalization. To overcome the patriarch one must turn away from the mainstream and focus in on one's inner life. A revolution occurs by refusing to buy into corrupted institutions.

Explaining NZ Politics to a Friend in America:

your right Jeff, but really our democratic system is a two horse race as well and for all it's trappings very similar to American politics. There are no real progressive parties with mainstream support and neo-liberalism underscores the whole political agenda. Not to be doomsday about it though laughs. The most progressive party is TOP http://www.top.org.nz/policy however they are very new and have little chance of even having a person in parliament. Our government is effectively owned and operated by diary farmers (our form of big business) with a plethora of unnecessary subsides given to them to make them even richer, especially water. Labour our mainstream left party, the only chance of opposition to right wing National is a party of inertia, that champions workers rights while selling them down the river. So all up I would say democracy is acting poorly in NZ, the people and there views are not represented, leading to millions of Kiwis not turning out to vote. Grass roots and social, political movements in NZ can make a real difference voting is simply a symbolic gesture to maintain the status quo with it's embedded institutionalized exploitation. A change will come, and it will not be at the ballot box, but through denying the pseudo power and forced choice of voting. Freedom can not be restrained by the state indefinitely.

Is NZ first's Immigration policy intrinsically Selfish?

Why NZ first's immigration policy is selfish. Their position on immigration although appealing in a knee jerk reaction way, aka less people taking jobs etc does not fix the major problem that people are literally starving in third world countries and need to come to NZ. immigration is a problem because NZ actively lets in people to the country we can exploit for cheap labour. I know you and I would not want to be exploited for cheap labour, we also wouldn't want to be starving to death somewhere. The problem is bribery in the immigration system. We should not prevent people coming into the country because we think they are going to steal some resources or jobs from us. We should prevent them coming into the country so we can unceremoniously exploit them, effectively keeping them in a western form of poverty as opposed to a third world form, immigrants are faced with slavery in the west or death at home. Immigration is a forced choice for many, denying them immigration is a death sentence, we have to come together, let in the worst off into the country, instead of giving the rich a free ride in NZ by buying up million dollar assets and them receiving instant citizenship. NZ first does not plan to tackle any of these problems, it is just delaying any form of solution, so although it looks appealing, it is not, if you value human life a just immigration policy. Just my opinion.

What's Wrong with Demockracy in New Zealand?

The irony is whether someone is on the left or the right of the political system, when you question the basis for the foundation of their beliefs, anger either overt or passive appears remarkably fast. The politically neutral person who simply wants a pragmatic and effective solution taken up by government is dis-regarded. A point Gareth Morgan makes explicitly clear in his interviews were the best expert policy is simply ignored and disavowed.

The left and the right are driven by emotion, fear of loss, fear of lack. The middle-ground, the gap between right and left, is the best place for a party to be placed that aims to bring both parts of the political spectrum together and rule based on justice and fairness in a democratic fashion. A party that unites National and Labour is what's needed! and if that is simply a Utopian dream then votes as know them should be modified to create legitimate social change.

An alternative view would then allow everyone in society to vote not for parties but on policies themselves. The MP's who sit in parliament with their own hidden agendas must be neutralized. This is because the technology within our hands, to allow the will of the people to determine the road ahead is now possible. Why should the people accept the rule by others when we the people are capable and willing to rule ourselves.

Government official's and political parties have grown complacent with their unjustified position of administering democracy. They believe the way things have been done is set in stone, but even stone is broken. All politicians and bureaucrats would do well to re-read Rousseau's "The Social Contract" again. The philosopher makes it explicitly clear, that a magistrate appointed on behalf of the people to administer the law should act not on his will, nor his parties, but on the will of the people.

Hence, as we have found out over many years that politicians can not be trusted, they must be in time dispensed with altogether.

Democracy has caught a long, debilitating sickness due to the negligent misconduct of 'Kafkin' civil servants. Thus, Democracy must be returned back into the hands of the people to restore it's full political and emancipatory potential. The emancipation movement is universal, common to everyone, and not yet achieved.

National government: Uncaring on Issue of GST on Female Sanitary Products

The New Zealand government seems too scared to change the law's around GST to improve the lives of the most dis-advantaged woman in society. The blunt and emotionless rebuff by Judith Collin's over this core issue denies human self worth and dignity to our wahine. Time and time again we have witnessed the increase in GST in our country. Yet, when nearly 30,000 kiwi's signed a petition for the opposite to occur on one small everyday item the blue meanie's say no. The government seems to be only interested in taking money off people without offering any genuine gestures of good will to struggling Kiwi's throughout the country, that's a sad reality. I wonder if Judith Collin's was dropped into a parallel universe overnight becoming homeless, struggling to buy sanitary products instead choosing to feed herself, whether she would have a different perspective on the issue. I have an inkling she would! The reason National doesn't want to remove GST on basic human necessities, is because they know, as soon as they do, there will be a ground swell for the government to remove GST on the most basic human necessities; food, bread, milk and water. Our nations depressing children poverty rate conveys that a vast section of New Zealander's are clearly struggling to feed their young families. This is not good enough, we should not be treating hardworking families as disposable people. A strong, decisive and peaceful act of retaliation is needed to express the anger and disappointment around the failure of government to address GST on sanitary products. All New Zealander should temporarily boycott Fonterra products. Until the government adequately justifies why GST on sanitary products should not be removed. It's time the National party and their lack of respect for human dignity is dealt with by hitting them where it hurts their bank accounts and their precious GST on farming produce. I would strongly encourage everyone to buy soy milk, almond milk, cat milk (just joking) any alternative milk product to put pressure on the current government. New Zealander's must wake up to the reality that we too can deny the government their precious GST revenue, just as they deny us any exception's on basic human necessities.

A song about the mess that is the Auckland Public Transport System - "Big City" by Ha the Unclear

I saw a great performance of this song live at Winecellar a while back and I am glad to hear the recording turned out so well! I really like the lyrical story that underpins the song. I instantly relate as a person whom also frequents the hideous mess that is Auckland public transport. Glad to hear a local song that captures the inward battle of the Auckland commute so vividly.

Jazzy Hip Hop - E.P

A live record I engineered in Avondale inside an Industrial warehouse. It's unpolished and raw but has a sweet vibe.