Terry Sarten: Trumping up terrorism, guns and a backstory

WGP 02Apr16 - MYSTIQUE: Terry Sarten works up his backstory.

WE HAVE just had a very expensive flag debate debacle.

For many of us, the kiwi with laser beams shooting from its eyes said more about our nation than all the other designs put together. Its message to the world was clear - we may identify with a flightless, endangered bird but watch out for the 1000-yard stare of death rays.

Mind you, we did at least have a say in the flag-waving/decision-making process, while the Governor-General, who is a very able person I am sure, was foisted on us with absolutely no consultation whatsoever.

The United States is in the thrall of a man with an elaborate comb-over - it's the kind of a "lie with hair" that should, in theory, immediately undermine trust in anything the person underneath it says.

Donald Trump has been called many things - a buffoon, a misogynistic, narcissistic, xenophobic, hate-monger with a personality disorder who wants to keep out South America with a huge wall. People in Wellington will be muttering that he will never get a council permit to build a wall that blocks the neighbours' view of Texas - and if he does, it will have to be pulled down when Texicans remember how much they need Mexicans.

Still we must look to the land of the brave and the free for leadership in some matters.

Last year in the US, 19 toddlers accidentally shot and killed themselves. In two other cases, the toddler shot and killed another individual, bringing the total of toddler-involved shooting deaths in the United States in 2015 to 21.

Over the same period, 19 Americans were killed in instances of suspected potential Islamic terrorism. Add in the American victim of the Paris attacks - that makes 20. There is nothing as dangerous as an American adult that allows a toddler to find a loaded gun.

The Australian 2014-15 Budget shows the Australian Government spent A$2.91 billion on detention and compliance-related programmes for asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat. This includes 634 people on Nauru (81 are children) and a further 943 on Manus Island.

A Commission of Audit found that the costs for holding people in these remote centres was roughly A$400,000 per person in 2014. As one report noted, it would have been cheaper to put each person in a luxury hotel on the Gold Coast - or sent them to New Zealand where we could have provided them with a new life and kept the change.

Ghosting is now a thing. What was once called the French Exit or the Irish Goodbye - the act of slipping away from a party unnoticed to avoid all the tedious goodbyes - has now extended its shadowy meaning to cover the ending of a relationship by suddenly disappearing. Not literally of course, but digitally by not responding to emails, texts, calls or social media and becoming a ghost of your former self to the spurned lover. I will end this list by noting that it seems one cannot become a music or media sensation without a backstory. Often these stories emerge just around the time the artist is putting out a new recording or touring.

As a musician, I clearly need to create more mystery around my life. Simply having a wonderful childhood, good health, educational opportunities plus some talent with a lyric and a melody is not a point of interest unless you can allude to some grand life-changing moment.

I do recall battling for months as a teenage to master an F chord on guitar and breaking my nails while learning to fingerpick.

I am a mystery to myself much of the time so perhaps a new picture in which you cannot see my face will add mystique.

-Terry Sarten is a writer, musician and social worker - feedback to tgs@inspire.net.nz.