Los desaparecidos. Sunday was the Day of the Disappeared - in memory of those who have "been disappeared" due to state terrorism, conflict or natural disasters.
In the whole of Latin America those two words conjure up the ghosts of dictatorships past where to give an opinion contrary to the
political party line was to risk not only your death or "disappearance" but those of your entire whanau and friends.
It's hard to imagine in a place like New Zealand but, in some small ways, we take some of the same roads those Latin American countries took before it went so lethally pear-shaped. Rampant inequality and a mass at the bottom who'd decided they had nothing to lose. This combined with increasing inequality in the education sector and a rise in community-based political activism by and for youth that sought to educate on political rights and obligations.
If we look at the audience that was attracted to the message of Hone Harawira and Mr Dotcom, regardless of the ultimate outcome of their efforts, there are some similarities. Prior to the election last year I had never seen youth - especially not in Whangarei lift and rally to the extent they did leading up to the election.
They may not all have voted, but there was a sense of change in the air and the sight of the local intermediate heaving with young people all wearing political party T-shirts and chanting was frightening and enervating in equal measure.
