STAYING ALIVE

 When I was about 12 I subscribed to Unesco's magazine The Courier for a couple of years.

It was expensive, being a specialist publication that was airmailed on subscription. I purchased these for a couple of years between 1964 and 1966, using my pocket money and earnings from lawn mowing and newspaper rounds. I can't remember why I stopped the subscription and don't have a clue where the magazines ended up.

The subject matter was serious, especially for a boy of my age but somewhere the information lodged in my brain and memory - for the good I think.

 Here are some examples of the themes of the publications at the time:

As you can see, not up to the interest factor of weekly comics like The Victor I also subscribed to or those MAN magazines my older brother and his friends had hidden.

I found out about the United Nations, UNESCO and UNESCO's The Courier in social studies class at Marist Newtown in Standard Four. Obviously I was motivated enough to outlay a big chunk of my 'earnings' for the subscription. I'll be honest here - I found the content to be rather boring and regretted the outlay but - I'm stubborn and would not admit this to family and friends for quite some time (nearly two years) before I quietly cancelled the subscription.

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"So where is that going?" an impatient and grumpy relief teacher in Upper Hutt might ask.

I was thinking that often we are either too lazy or distracted to take the time and effort to keep informed on important issues even though, in our modern times information is so readily available to us via radio, television, the internet, social media platforms - on our computers, iPads and phones. A 12 year old today doesn't have to regularly go to the post office to buy a postal order to post to the USA for a subscription to an obscure magazine. That 12 year old today can simply look up multiple apps on their phone and immediately, and for free, get all the information one could possibly want ... if they could be bothered.

Today at age 73 I'm much lazier than I was at 12 but I still like to keep informed. I don't have the focus I once had and tend to jump about a bit in my reading and viewing but like to think that I'm at least average and because I read across a fairly wide spectrum, am balanced.

I rarely watch TV news because it is too narrow-focussed and, to be fair, I've already caught up on almost everything that they broadcast via the news media I read and watch. I use Flipboard on my iPad to read news reports from agencies like BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, MSNBC, NYT etc and find MSNBC the best for USA reporting and analysis. On the TV I use Youtube to watch news videos and again follow MSNBC reporters and presenters like Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Katy Tur, Stephanie Ruhl, Ari Melber and others. They are intelligent and dedicated reporters who put together concise essays and conduct panels on the most current situations - well worth watching.

Relevant to this post is a report from Nicolle Wallace on the insidious creep of authoritarianism and fascist rule in USA. Other s have also written and presented on this but have a look at this:

Unless we keep up to date with events and take an active interest in things that ultimately affect our lives we will, like that frog, end up boiled before we become aware of the danger.

And now it's all right, it's okay
And you may look the other way
But we can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're gettin' boiled alive, boiled alive

Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'
And we're gettin' boiled alive, boiled alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, boiled alive, boiled alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, boiled alive