Pres Sez 23

Some of you may be aware of the crisis that the United States (my home country) is going through. For the last 8 years it has been run by a government that has literally been destroying the country and world we live in today. Before the Bush administration took office the government had approximately a $127 billion surplus. Today the US, has a $9.5 trillion deficit (largely caused by the war in Iraq amongst many other things).

The United States up until now has greatly suffered by the same thing as New Zealand, with many of its young people (between the ages of 18 - 30 years old) in the country not voting and not taking an interest in what is happening in their own country.

While I am by no means trying to contrast the leadership of NZ with that of the US, the point I am trying to make is that if we as a nation of young people do not pay attention or care what is going on around us today, one day many years from now there is a good chance we may be regretting it as we see our own country start to head in the wrong direction.

This year Barack Obama and the Democrat Party have had a huge influence in trying to change the mentality of the young person and getting them to stand up and vote and think about what is going on in their country. They have broken into new territories to get students interested in politics and their country. New technological initiatives such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, YouTube etc has been used to inform young people of what is going on in their country politically.

While the New Zealand Electoral Commission has been good in breaking into new communication territories such as the ones mentioned above to encourage students to vote, unfortunately our political parties have not largely used these things to communicate their policies and ideas to the young people of this nation. The clock is ticking guys; if you haven't already started researching the different political parties, do it now!

Lastly to celebrate the end of year in style, AuSM is hosting Katchafire and House of Shem at the AUT quad this Friday 17 October. Doors open at 7pm and entry is free to AUT students up until 9pm. After 9pm all door sales (to AUT students as well) will be $30. Just make sure you turn up early with your AUT ID card and another form of 18+ ID and you will be fine getting in. If you would like to invite your friends or partners who do not go to AUT, there are a limited number of tertiary and public tickets available for pre-sale. Contact the AuSM office for more info.

‘Till next week!