Providing much more than music for the ears
INTRIGUED by an article in the ODT (see ‘‘Openentry virtuosity’’ on its website), Civis and spouse headed last week for Burns Chapel, Holy Cross, Mosgiel, the Virtuoso String Orchestra, and a feast of music ranging from Vivaldi, J.S. Bach,
Mozart and Beethoven, through arrangements of a couple of Beatles songs, to a 21st century composition titled Fourth Trimester (think about it), by one of the orchestra’s musical directors, Craig Utting.
That piece was performed by a group which included several of his wife’s (the other musical director, Elizabeth Sneyd) and his children (the vocal soloist, it seems, was in utero when it was composed), reflecting the familystrong nature of the orchestra.
Elgar’s Nimrod (marking the anniversary of the Pike River tragedy) and two movements from Shostakovich’s anguished 8th Quartet
(written as he developed motor neurone disease) brought tears to the eyes. A violin solo by Toloa Faraimo exemplified ‘‘virtuoso’’.
The chapel was full, with extra seats in the aisle, and many standing at the back. And not because entry was free. Banknotes piled up in the violin case earmarked for donations, near the door, as the audience entered and left.
The orchestra comprises 43 children from Porirua, aged 9 to 18, of mixed ethnicity, with strong Pasifika membership. They’re only a fraction of the more than 200 children a year who benefit from the nonauditioned, no cost (to children and families) music programme begun when Elizabeth and Craig spent their savings on 150 violins and started free lessons in decile 1 and 2 East Porirua schools, proving that, adequately resourced, children from all backgrounds can achieve excellence.
That was emphasised by a local (‘‘you can take the girl out of Porirua but you can’t take Porirua out of the girl’’) speaker, who noted the children’s intelligence and courage, and reminded listeners that equality of opportunity isn’t enough. Equity demands targeted resourcing: adequately resourced, youngsters from severely deprived areas can achieve as well as anyone. And achieving excellence changes lives.
Thanks, Sam and Rosalie Sneyd, for your daughter Elizabeth — she and Craig are taonga.
Last week, Immigration Minister Iain LeesGalloway, acting, presumably, on official advice, said there were no grounds for refusing identitarians Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern visas, despite Ms Southern’s history of inciting violence in the UK and the Mediterranean.
Days later it was revealed that Gulalai Ismail, a Pakistani campaigner for women’s rights and girls’ education, who, in midApril, applied for a visa so she could be keynote speaker at the International Humanist and Ethical Union conference, and a parallel conference of the NZ Humanist Society, in Auckland, in early August, still hadn’t been granted a visa, and has had contradictory answers to questions about the status of her application.
A Union board member from Uganda has been refused entry, because she was considered at risk of overstaying; another from Uganda still awaits an answer; and Leo Igwe, from Nigeria, was initially refused entry and only granted it after legal intervention.
It is ridiculous to think that activists heavily involved in human rights work at home, and who travel frequently, would become overstayers here. But it’s not a new issue. Civis commented in 2012 on the similar refusal of a visa for a respected layman who’d been elected by the Pakistani church to represent it at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Auckland that year.
Is the Immigration Ministry racist? It appears so.
A pair of white nationalist, antiIslam, professional provocateurs (a man who rewrites history, and a manicured woman with long blonde (dyed?) hair who incites violence) get visas, despite pleas from targets of their hate to exclude them, but black Africans and Pakistani nationals, working for human rights, are racially profiled, it seems, as being threats to New Zealand.
Mr LeesGalloway needs to review the protocols used in decisionmaking about visas, eliminate systemic racism and ensure that individual decisions aren’t driven by personal racism. He’s got a big job.