The University of Auckland Glee Club rehearsing for their upcoming show on 21 August.

A congregation of enthusiastic students dressed in red is smiling and singing a harmonious rendition of Let the Sun Shine In.

No, this is not the local church choir singing a gospel number for the Sunday service, it is the University of Auckland’s newest singing group, Glee Club.

Singing groups seem to be shedding their ‘geeky’ status as glee clubs are gaining popularity around New Zealand. Young people with a variety of backgrounds, including those who have never sung, as well trained singers, are all jumping up to join a glee club.

Since the American TV show Glee! began airing in New Zealand on November 6 last year, glee clubs have been established in Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury.

The clubs all sing and dance to songs similar to those performed on Glee!, with favourites including Don’t Stop Believing by Journey and Like a Prayer by Madonna.

The University of Auckland Glee Club was started in January by Katie Flood and now has 60 members; all students studying for a range of degrees.

“It was the success of the show that helped get so many members,” says Flood.

“Every week we are still getting emails saying ‘can I join?’.”

President of the University of Canterbury Glee Club Elizabeth Thomson says the club was “a little bit inspired” by Glee! but not entirely.

“A lot of us watch the show and love the show,” she says.

Thomson started the Glee Club in April this year to give people involved with the Canterbury musical theatre society something to do in between productions.

Music teacher Andrew Stopps was not directly influenced by Glee! to start the “GleeNZ” club in Wellington for students aged 14 to 22, but he says the show played a big part in getting people to join.

“The timing was really good,” says Stopps. “I mentioned singing and dancing and everyone shouted ‘glee!’.”

Auckland Glee Club president Flood says that Glee! “has definitely raised the profile of singing and musical theatre”, with the club being so popular that it has had to close membership because its practice room was filled to capacity.

She says the TV show has made singing and music “cooler” and more accessible.

Stopps agrees and says it is a great way to get people interested in singing.

His only worry is that people will think the show is a real representation of how glee clubs are in real life, but it actually takes time and practice to sound good.

“The songs [on the show] are pre-produced and rehearsed,” says Stopps.

“When I started GleeNZ, there was a sense of ‘is this what it’s really like?’.”

“People were expecting it to be like the show.”

Stopps says that glee clubs, also known as show choirs, are nothing new, and have been appearing in Australia for several years.

Nor are they new to New Zealand – King’s College in Auckland has had a glee club for more than 70 years, says King’s archivist John Bean.

In fact the Oxford Companion to Music tells us the term ‘glee club’ has been around for over 100 years, originating in England and originally referring to a club for performing ‘glees’ or choral songs.

For more information see the glee club websites:

UoA Glee Club

UC Glee Club

Gleenz

This year the Adidas Auckland Marathon is adding a new event to its line up, creating the ‘Kids Marathon’.

Björn Láczay

Organisers have developed a children’s training program with local schools that results in youth running the 42km course over a period of 8-12 weeks.

The children’s event will be held in conjunction with the Auckland Marathon, in which 14,000 men and women will run the physically demanding route, some fast and others more leisurely, across the Harbour Bridge and around Auckland’s waterfront.

Competitors will finish at Victoria Park where their supporters, friends and family will cheer them home.

The Kids Marathon will take place in a school training environment where students are encouraged to participate.

The children will then have the opportunity to cross the finish line ahead of the main event also in front of supporters.

Hamish Barclay, 14, says the marathon is something he would have wanted to complete earlier.

“I’ve always wanted to do a marathon when I was younger but I have never been the right age, I hope my school does this for students who are there now.”

The Adidas Auckland Marathon says the program is designed to fight the childhood obesity epidemic which has quintupled among children aged six to eleven over the last 40 years.

The Kids Marathon will be held on October 31 and is $22 dollars to enter.

Competitors can enter online at www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz

E-counselling, or internet therapy, is gaining popularity in New Zealand, and online counselling service AskChris.co.nz is at the forefront of this emerging trend.

The founder of AskChris, Chris Hight, says giving people easier access to counselling was her main motivation for establishing the online service.

“As I’ve gone on, [I’ve] recognised that people want to access counselling for things like grief, family stress in the moment when things are really bad and really raw, and they often can’t.”

The website offers four services: web journal, chat therapy, supervision and life coaching – all services cost $89.00.

Chat therapy is done through online chat sessions; similar to Skype or MSN chat.

Web journal is similar to email, whereby the client sends a detailed message and receives a response of approximately 500 words from a therapist.

Relationship difficulties, anxiety, work stress and “a bit of depression” have been the main issues dealt with through the website, says Hight.

Hight says the advantages of online counselling are: a lowering of anxiety, embarrassment and shame, and the option for clients to print off the transcript of their therapy session.

The counselling service covers most of the benefits of face-to-face counselling, but there are a few issues that are difficult to deal with online.

“We do try very hard to encourage people who are suicidal to go face-to-face.

“The other thing that’s a little bit difficult is drugs and alcohol because there’s a lot of game playing.

“There’s not a lot that we can’t deal with online.”

Hight says the success of the service can be measured by the increasing number of people using the website each month.

“This year in particular we are starting to see some real movement.”

Former All Black John Kirwan has been heavily involved in Government-run campaigns to raise awareness of depression and now he is fronting a new online self-help programme called “The Journal”.

The Government has given its approval for online therapy, says Hight

“They [the Government] did a big research project to ask whether depression could be helped with online therapy.

Hight says the fact the Government has established The Lowdown website to help youth with depression and John Kirwan’s involvement means “they’ve come out and said yes, it does [work]”.

There have been no concerns about the safety of online counselling, says Hight.

Andy McCormack, founder of counselling service Its My Life, says he decided to add online counselling to his services after thinking about his future client base.

“I felt that the clients in their 20s and 30s are very much hooked in to their PCs and online chat.”

McCormack says he noticed people talking about counselling issues through message boards on Trade Me.

“It made me realise that people are sitting at home on their PCs and laptops engaging in getting some sort of therapy online.”

Its My Life uses the written MSN text chat function on Skype for online counselling.

McCormack says online counselling has its advantages, in particular, some people find it easier to write about their problems, rather than talking about them face-to-face.

“I think actually typing and writing stuff is quite strong as a therapeutic tool.”

However, there are also disadvantages to online counselling, says McCormack.

“With face-to-face counselling a lot of the work is done with body language and feeling the emotion; you can’t really get that with online counselling.

“It’s certainly not suitable with people in crisis; you can’t take action quickly enough.”

McCormack says he sees online counselling as something that will be used more and more in the future.

These could soon be reverse-in parking spaces

A plan by New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for drivers to reverse in to angled car parks has received mixed responses from the Cycling Advocates Network (CAN) and the Automobile Association (AA).

NZTA media manager Andrew Knackstedt said the agency is not advocating that people change the rules, but is giving councils the option of introducing reverse-in parking if they believe that is the best solution for a particular road.

“The proposal is to allow councils to erect signs that indicate where they want people to reverse park”, said Knackstedt.

CAN spokesperson Anne FitzSimon said reverse-in parking would be safer for cyclists, pedestrians and passengers and they “support their [NZTA’s] call”.

“We have a bit of a culture where we don’t take enough care.

“By using the reverse-in parking it actually encourages people to take a little bit more time and care.

“It’s safer for cyclists because people aren’t reversing out in to the cyclists.”

AA motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon said the association is “pretty cautious in their support” of the proposal, and it if was introduced it should only be in zones with a high level of different road users.

Noon said some motorists could be “confused” by having to reverse park.

“The problem that people have got is people aren’t particularly good at backing and they don’t necessarily judge the overhang of their vehicle well when backing.

“The argument is that it will be safer for cyclists, but obviously if you’re in a high traffic area we would actually prefer cyclists to have their own lane.”

Noon said the combination of New Zealanders’ typically large vehicles and narrow parking spaces would add to the problems for drivers.

“What we are talking about is backing from a wide open area in to a small, narrow area and that will cause some problems for some drivers.”

A press release from CAN says the AA refers to women, the elderly and those with limited mobility being most at risk.

FitzSimon objected to the claim that women are more at risk and said there are options for people with limited mobility.

“If people have restricted mobility then I’m sure they can have special mirrors.

“There are things that can be put in vehicles that can assist people who have trouble seeing or turning.”

“There is research which has been done showing that they [women] are less comfortable backing”, Noon said.

FitzSimon said reverse-in parking has been done in Australia with some success.

“Where it’s used in Australia in the cities, the parking is often in the centre of the road so that the left hand side of the road is completely clear of parking, that means that cyclists are very safe,” said Noon.

There is a negative aspect to the proposal, said FitzSimon

“I think there’s sort of a fear that people can’t actually back.

“It terrifies me to think that people actually aren’t capable of reversing safely.”

For the proposal to be plausible, the council would have to make changes to the parking spaces themselves, said Noon.

“First you would have to re-engineer the car parks so that they are at least 90 degrees, or even more than that, otherwise drivers are backing around a corner.

“It’s been pushed by some local councils, and local councils were asking for the rule change to be given the option to do this kind of parking.

“At this stage it is still a consultation within the rules process and so no decision has actually been taken.”

An Auckland City Council spokesperson said: “the proposal has not been presented to Auckland City Council, nor has it been considered.”

The New Zealand Veterinary Association says all dogs should keep their tails.

A new animal welfare code has been released, part of which allows for tail docking of puppies who are less than four days old.

The official document, released by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC), allows for removal of tails by a person who possesses the appropriate knowledge, training and competency necessary to do so effectively.

For puppies older than four days, tail docking must be done by a veterinarian.

New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) animal welfare coordinator Dr Virginia Williams approves of the code, as it is a measure to improve the welfare of dogs, but doesn’t “see any good reason for docking a dog’s tail”.

Dr Williams said the New Zealand Kennel Club (NZKC) has guidelines on tail docking that include hygiene, convenience and tradition.

“Most of the traditional reasons that are given don’t apply because many of the dogs are not now used for the purposes that they were originally bred,” Dr Williams said

President of NZKC John Perfect said a number of dog breeds have their tails docked for various reasons.

“When we talk about docking tails, there is no specific group [of dogs] that is targeted for that purpose, or where that practice has been carried out traditionally.”

There are a number of working dogs, such as Old English Sheep dogs, Australian Cattle dogs and Pembroke Corgies that have been docked for different reasons but because they have been around for hundreds of years, the original reason(s) for docking are unknown, said Perfect.

Dr Williams said there are side effects of tail docking, such as infection, haemorrhage and sensitivity to pain.

“Although there are indications that the sense of pain is minimal when they’re just a few days old, there is also indication that if you do something like that when they are very young, it sensitizes them to pain later on.”

Perfect said tail docking provides protection for dogs that are used continuously for working or sporting related activities, such as some Terrier breeds and gun dogs.

Tail docking on dogs is banned in many countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Scotland, South Africa and India.

A mockumentary documenting two New Zealanders’ mission to get a TV show made is now showing online.

‘The Project’ is a nine-part web series released on Laugh TV, through Ziln, New Zealand’s first internet television network.

It has been described in a Ziln press release as New Zealand’s first online only New Zealand web sitcom / mockumentary.

The creators and stars of the show are Harley Neville and Guy Pigden, who are both part of Pigville Productions.

Neville said the series is based on reality and “marketed as real life”.

“Everything has some grain of truth.”

Neville described himself as the assistant director and “ideas man”, who alters the scripts, organises actors and locations, and adds in his two cents.

Guy comes up with the scripts and is also the director.

The production was not without its challenges.

Neville said there were a few scenes with lots of extras that were pretty hard to shoot, especially with no budget.

Pitching their show to the right people was also a challenge.

“It was such an ordeal to get it [the series] seen by the right people.”

The creators pitched the show to several television networks and after a lot of indecision (and re-edits) were rejected.

“Getting rejected was the hardest part because you spend so long making a show and then when you finally finish it you think the hardest part is over….but that is not the case.”

So they turned to the internet to solve their broadcasting dilemma.

Ziln director of broadcasting Paul Brennan said it was great to be able to accommodate The Project.

“It’s the sort of comedy not found on screen as often as it should.”

It is good for real comedians to not have corporates telling them it won’t work, said Brennan.

Ziln is free to watch for anyone in New Zealand with a broadband connection. It has 16 New Zealand channels and 12 international channels, including Euronews and Aljazeera.

Laugh TV managing director TM Bishop could not be reached for comment.

Josh Gale and Geoff Bell look into the increasing number of underage prostitutes working the central Auckland streets.

A spike in underage prostitution in Auckland’s CBD is concerning police and outreach workers who say girls as young as 12 and 13 are being picked up off the streets from what is known as “the young red light area”.

Senior Constable Mark Riddell, a member of the Auckland central police Youth Action Team, says a police operation run in the last six weeks, called Operation City Door, has led to the identification of at least 13 girls aged under 16 who are all “active prostitutes”.

Riddell says the girls usually work on City Rd, which runs behind the five-star Langham Hotel where many foreign dignitaries stay when they are visiting New Zealand.

“Just this week we’ve taken four of the young girls off the street and put them in the custody of Child, Youth and Family.”

Northern Regional Manager for Child, Youth and Family (CYF) Marion Heeney confirms the increase and is also aware of 13 underage girls working as prostitutes in Auckland CBD.

“It is unclear what the reason for the apparent upsurge is or whether it signals a trend, but it is obviously concerning,” says Heeney.

Debbie Baker, the manager of Streetreach, a group supporting street sex workers, knows of at least 12 girls, between 11 and 15, “out there selling themselves for sex” in the central city.  “I’ve had a lot of contact with some of them,” says Baker.

“Underage prostitution has always been a problem, but there is an increase. We’re seeing more and more young girls out there,” she says.

The legal age to work as a prostitute in New Zealand is 18, but it is not a crime for underage girls to sell themselves for sex because the law treats them as the victim.

The increase of underage prostitution in the CBD may be a result of police efforts to clean up “young red light areas” in South Auckland, such as Hunters Corner in Papatoetoe and spots in Manurewa, forcing the girls into the city, says Riddell.

Baker says the girls quickly learn how to avoid the police.

“They’re not dumb and the people with these girls are not dumb. I would say there’s probably not a problem out at Hunters Corner at the moment. The girls travel, they have access to cars and friends with cars. They go to places we might not even know of yet,” she says.

Baker says she knows a 12-year-old girl from West Auckland who was recruited by a gang outside her school to sell cannabis. After spending the drug money the gang forced her into prostitution to pay her debt and she shared the extra earnings from her work with her family.

“Her parents knew exactly what she was doing.”

Riddell also suspects some parents may know.

“They’re just happy a few dollars come in each week because a lot of them will spread the money to family,” he says.

Heeney says she is unaware of parents encouraging their children into prostitution for their own financial gain.

Riddell and Baker say gangs are not always to blame.

“Sometimes it’s family taking them out to work and sometimes it’s friends,” says Baker. “I think gangs tend to work the girls a lot smarter. They have a situation where you can ring up and ask for your girl and meet at a point.”

Riddell thinks many of  the girls use P, and has found girls as young as 13 staying with adult drug dealers.

“There’s so much cheap accommodation in the city now and you get one person in an apartment and they can get all their friends around,” he says.

“Since I’ve been working on this squad, which is probably six years or so now, it’s always been there, but with the meth use there are more girls out there.”

Baker says drugs are not the only issue.

“For some of them they can be out there for a packet of smokes or survival or because they’re actually being abused at home so they’d rather get paid for it,” she says.

However she is not surprised many of the girls use drugs.

“I’ve had girls say to me: ‘Deb, I can’t do this straight’. Some of the things the girls have to do are pretty horrific so no wonder they take drugs,” she says.

Riddell says it is difficult to keep the girls off  the street because often as soon as they take them home or put them in the care of CYF they run away.

“Kids on a lot of occasions will run away on the same night we pick them up. On some occasions they’ve got back to the city before we’ve got back out on the road.

“It’s pretty hard when these girls find it so easy to pick up easy cash. There’s always a supply of people picking them up.”

He says CYF has only about 100 beds in secure custody across New Zealand and they are prioritised for suicide risks so the girls he deals with often miss out.

Baker says she believes the police are under-resourced and CYF is unable to deal with the problem.

“These girls may be abused in their home and all the police have got the power to do is to take them back to their home. The police really do have their hands tied.

“We need to protect our children and these are children regardless of where they’ve come from. Child prostitution is child abuse and it needs to be given the same penalties. It needs to be given the same priority as child abuse.”

Minister of Youth Affairs Paula Bennett says the increase is very concerning.

“Because prostitution isn’t illegal…we cannot simply lock these young women up and sometimes they do abscond from care.

“There are dedicated and committed people from CYF, police and social workers who regularly deal with underage prostitutes and I think if you asked them, they’d say there is no easy answer to this issue.”

Annah Pickering, the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective Auckland regional manager, says while she does not dispute the increase, neither she nor her staff  have recently come across child prostitution in Auckland central.

“Our organisation is out there regularly and I haven’t come across any 12-year-olds for a long time,” says Pickering. But she says NZPC staff are “not out there 24/7”.

Pickering says adult sex workers discourage children from working as prostitutes because it is “not good for business”.

While Operation City Door has had some success, Riddell says his unit’s next step will be getting Auckland City Council, the Langham Hotel and other stakeholders involved by providing better street lighting and car park security on City Rd.

He says the Langham Hotel’s car park “gets quite a few undesirables parking up in there”.

“We want to make the area less user friendly for them.”

This story first appeared in the print edition of Te Waha Nui.

Prime Minister John Key said in the House that the declaration “would have no impact on New Zealand’s law or New Zealand’s constitution”.

“We did not sign up to anything; we affirmed a declaration that is non-binding and apsirational.”

Phil Goff says this is not the case, and “The Declaration’s terms are incompatible with New Zealand’s constitution, legal framework and the Treaty of Waitangi”.

Goff says when in Government, Labour “took a principled decision” to not sign the declaration, because they saw it as something that no government would be able to implement.

“The Government’s signing up is an empty gesture because they have said they affirmed a declaration that is no-binding and apsirational and one they wouldn’t follow.”

Goff says that this confirms that the Minister’s signing of the Declaration is “totally meaningless”.

“I don’t believe a Government should affirm or sign a declaration they have no intention of standing by.

“It diminishes the worth of anything the Government signs.”

However Pita Sharples, the Minister for Maori Affairs, says that it is clear in the Declaration that the country’s “domestic constitution and laws” prevail.

While the Declaration is not legally binding, Sharples says this does not mean that it is meaningless.

“It has moral force, and it can be referred to by lawmakers when legislation is drafted, and by judges interpreting the law”.

“So, just like the Treaty of Waitangi, the Declaration is not part of our ture, our law, but because the government has made a public statement of support, it has been adopted as part of our tikanga, our customs and values, and it will gradually become part of the common law.”