The election and other fun events

As the US is gearing up for it’s big election day, so is New Zealand. Both elections have been covered closely in the media here. George Bush is pretty much despised by Kiwis, so regardless of who is finally elected, there is elation at the thought of change. I would say, though, that there is general excitement on this side of the world at the possibility of a black president for the US. I’m sure the principal at Kaka Street will be able to give me hourly updates tomorrow (our Wednesday) as the election results begin to come in – we’ll both be eagerly awaiting the news.

Here in NZ, campaigning is also in full-swing, with their big vote on the 8th. In 1996, the governmental set-up changed to multi-party representation (specifically “mixed-member proportional representation”). I’m going to butcher this (and poli-sci majors, forgive me), but here goes… Essentially a Kiwi voter has two votes. One goes to the individual who they would like for their local MP or Member of Parliament; the other goes for a party. The percentage of votes a party receives indicates the percentage of the Parliament that will be made up by that party. Following me? There are lots of parties – National and Labour are the largest two – but don’t forget about the Maori, Green, ACT, NZ First, Kiwi, and others as well. Now, to get something passed, these groups need to form coalitions and band together to have the necessary supporting votes. So you have to be aware of what other parties your preferred party aligns itself with. All-in-all, very interesting… If you have not followed my amazing dissertation on MMP here, feel free to check out http://www.elections.org.nz/voting/mmp/ for a better overview!

In addition to the election fun, we’ve had and will have two holidays. Last Friday was Halloween, which is not the spectacle here as it is in the US. There were some costume events for the 20s crowd, and while the commercial entities would like trick-or-treating to catch on (if only to sell costumes and candy), it just hasn’t done so yet. Tomorrow we’ll celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. I’ve been spending a lot of time getting people to explain Guy Fawkes Day; in turn, I’ve been doing a fair bit of explaining about Thanksgiving. Guy Fawkes is pretty much a day to light some firecrackers, it seems. Today, though, a student did quote to me the specific day that Guy Fawkes was caught, attempting his act of treason (November 5, 1975) – which I found pretty impressive for a special ed student. There is another fun November event coming up, but I’ll leave that for Cory to explain another day…