A LANGE TIME AGO

REMEMBERING LIFE UNDER A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC  REVOLUTION: A LANGE TIME AGO 

Photo By Archives New Zealand - Flickr: David Lange, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33340936

Dedicated to the memory of the Rt Hon David Lange C.H (1942-2005)

When the time comes to say goodbye, properly and peacefully, there will always be an inevitable mixture of sadness and relief. So it is with myself and Massey University. I recall, fondly, a London-born friend who died some years ago. Years after leaving her job in the cafeteria on concourse, she devoted her time to hosting and helping international students. That is just one of many inspiring stories of lifelong contact with Massey University. In my case, however, it is time to move on.

My curious relationship with Massey University begins with Father Christmas, journeys through a Tongan village and a local timber yard, powered along by the sweeping changes to New Zealand society under the government led by then Prime Minister of New Zealand, David Lange.

I am one of these strange mortals who loves education, but didn't like school. I had a nice time, and made fantastic friends, but the whole thing dragged on for me. I would have left school, if it weren't for a school trip to Tonga during the summer vacation, with a team of us helping rebuild several villages after a hurricane. I loved Tonga and dreamed of living there one day. As a song of the time harmonised, all things romantic mean the South Pacific. So I had another look at being educated and financial. I decided to leave St Peter's College for Palmerston North Boys High School, one of the best schools in New Zealand academically.

With a greater emphasis on sports, Boys High only had a very small Debating Club, whereas St Peter's had nationally renowned orators and debaters.

So I joined the team that would face Queen Elizabeth College in an impromptu debate, which we expected to take place in a classroom at  “QE” one lunch hour.

When we got there, we were shown into an auditorium full of hundreds of students, some of which welcomed us with the one-finger salute. We had five minutes to prepare to debate that “Father Christmas is Real”. The Boys High Team, in our grey uniforms, were surrounded by a sea of people who could wear what they liked to school. We had to argue for the Affirmative. I already felt like a dork, and would feel like an even bigger dork if I had to talk about the reality of Father bloody Christmas to a crowd of rowdy teenagers.

In a startling moment of logical, when it was my turn to speak, I said that we were not discussing men in beards, flying reindeers or sacks down chimneys, but a symbol of our traditional holidays. We won the debate.

That was that. Until somebody remembered it, when I was invited to chair the local branch of Labour Youth two years later.

In the meantime, I had been enjoying my role as a born-again swot, getting good grades. I'd even made the top 10% of the sixth form in economics. I topped the whole sixth form with an essay about the musical uniqueness of Memphis in the American South - a subject I revisited for Chaff 150 years later, in my profile on hip-hop promoter Angel Kelly. As with the Santa Claus debate, these bursts of study paid off later when I found myself meeting the political giants of the time.

At school, however, I was offered a job as a “management trainee” at Odlins Timber, though that was a very loose term. So I started work the Monday after David Lange had been elected Prime Minister in an historic snap election, in July 1984. The New Zealand dollar was devalued, because the country was close to defaulting on its debt. Nevertheless, there was sense of excitement in the air. I found out how to make money on the stock market. In Tonga, I was informed of a fledgling, now thriving business exporting yams to the Tongan community in San Francisco.

Though rumblings of imminent high unemployment were felt, I had three jobs.

David Lange had won a debate at Oxford University against President Reagan's associate, the Rev Jerry Falwell. The debate was about the controversial nuclear issue, and was broadcast worldwide, including a direct feed to the White House. We all felt great about New Zealand making an international impact.

An impending goods and services tax (GST)  meant that families and businesses were stocking up on building supplies before the tax took effect. So business was booming where I worked. As mentioned earlier, I was asked if I wanted to lead the local Labour Youth, even though I wasn't a member of the Labour Party. But I agreed in the secret hope of seeing Lange and his finance minister, Roger Douglas, in full cry.

My first “official engagement” in this new political venture, was an introduction to the man who led the Labour Electorate Committee. He wanted to sound me out. I think that's what “he's keen to meet you” means in politics. Daunting as it seemed, coffee and biscuits were enjoyed, and the meeting wasn't bad either. The Labour Party official was a pleasant young sociology lecturer, who went on to become a Cabinet Minister himself. From there, he attained the role Vice-Chancellor of Massey University: Steve Maharey. 

The meeting was memorable for its energy and ideas. Maharey detected my political lightness. But it became clear through the meeting that my own political passion was education. Furthermore, I wanted to go to university, even though I had no entrance qualifications.

Speaking partly from experience, I felt that New Zealand needed a vibrant and inspiring education system.

Years ago, a teenager who, like me, disliked trigonometry, complained to his uncle. His uncle told him to treat x like a thief who stole his bike, and in order to get his bike back, he had to go behind the lines in the triangle where x was hiding, and identify x.

The teenager was Albert Einstein, and maybe he owed part of the Theory of Relativity to his uncle's Sherlock Holmes approach to mathematics. But I found out that approach years later, in my own reading, in my own time.

My new found political zeal involved writing a policy remit, standing for an inspiring education system that includes families and communities as well as academic boffins. Before presenting the remit at Annual Conference in Wellington, we had to go to a regional conference in Levin. I went through a baptism of fire, got shouted at, shouted back, and the remit was passed.

It was a lot more uptight and intense than I imagined. At the end of the vote, I asked if I could make an announcement, and the room froze in horror. My statement was: “Thank you for your support. I'm going outside for a smoke.” The room erupted in laughter, which was the point of the remit. In Wellington, the remit went through with barely a whisper. From that point on, I then subscribed to the Dr Robert school of politics- “it doesn't mean a thing if you can't make it sing.” I then enrolled at Massey, graduated with a degree in social anthropology, and I am still trying to make it all sing.

I did get to see a fascinating debate about economics between Roger Douglas and a  Canadian-born trade unionist, with me occasionally wading in to lend my steadying hand of support. I can't divulge the details, because it was a semi-private gathering. But I still remember.

When I did meet David Lange, he seemed happy to receive a Tongan newspaper from friends of mine, covering his visit to the Kingdom of Tonga. He knew the village, he knew the family I stayed with, and he seemed to enjoy the place as much as I did. Some time before he passed away in 2005, he provided full use of all available audio in support of my mother's film No Chance to Paint the Canvas. Our team recorded a musical archive of David Lange's work, with the recording of two music tracks overdubbed with his voice, titled “David Lange” https://soundcloud.com/adam-greenwell/david-lange and “The Debate.” https://soundcloud.com/adam-greenwell/the-debate

Upon leaving Parliament David Lange said, “ This country is different for our having been here. And there is good and bad in that. But the balance of history will be that it was for the good.”

Accordingly, I have chosen not to dwell on the enormous trials that this country and our city to have gone through together. What counts is that we all continue to reach that place where campuses and communities connect, create, and consolidate. Lets make alliteration work for everybody.

My final article will be about New York, which is as it should be.

I insist that Massey University and all throughout it enjoy ongoing success and satisfaction.

Kind regards,

Adam

1984 Snap Election, New Zealand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEoBNe4HVP4

Oxford Union Debate 1985 , David Lange vs Rev. Jerry Falwell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeHTziiFVx0