Whanganui letters: Music as a power player

A freedom rally for Iran was held in Auckland's Aotea Square on October 1. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

As a musician and songwriter myself, I know how music often provides a soundtrack to our lives.

Sometimes it's as bland as wallpaper, sometimes it's art - decorative and lovely. We forget it does have power. Why would a regime try to ban a song unless they were afraid of its power?

We see this in Iran as the regime tries to silence the voices singing the song 'Baraye' by Shervin Hajipour, as it is seen as a threat to their authority.

The song lyrics are a collective of words that sing for "woman, life, freedom" following the death of a young woman in custody after her arrest by the morality police for not wearing her hijab "correctly". This has stirred a massive response across Iran with protests, arrests and state-sanctioned violence against its own people.

The song has been spread across Iran and the rest of the world by the internet and is being sung as a challenge to the Iran regime. It has demonstrated the power of music as an art form that can mobilise people towards common goals.

The fear of a song and its power can be seen in the arrest of the musician who wrote and recorded 'Baraye' and the attempts to ban, remove and shut down the singing of voices for women, life, and freedom.

The ability to sing is one of life's greatest freedoms. It is something we all do in our own way. It cannot be easily caged or stifled.

The singing for women, life, freedom, is a musical rebellion against repression. The more the Iranian regime tries to silence the voices, the louder they will sing.

TERRY SARTEN
Whanganui

Time for election changes

Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) and others are chest-beating about low voter turnout.

Around 50 per cent is plenty; that is more than those who have knowledge of the issues and have an opinion on what the council should do about it.

Selecting the right councillors is what counts - not easy, because we don't know too much about a lot of them, their abilities and their opinions about what is wrong and what to do about the different issues.

We need to know if they have strong views or are just rubber-stampers looking for a wage.

That is the problem area, in my opinion. We need to have more of their views and see them in printed form so we can tell when they deviate and can ask them why.

The other thing we need in national and local elections is a five-year term, to give us time to breathe or get really upset as to how badly things are tracking.

Good governments get three terms (nine years). So if we have five-year terms, a good government would get two terms (10 years); a bad one, one term, as they would not be able to sneak a second term, as now happens.

GARTH SCOWN
Whanganui

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