Neda

I was having a whinge about my impending 36-dom on FB and then I saw something in the paper which made me go to Youtube and I watched Neda Soltan bleed profusely out her nose and mouth probably a good 10 or 15 times after she was shot by a Basij sniper on the streets of Tehran and I decided my impending 36-dom was a piss in the ocean to Neda's life ending while people fight for the right to vote.

Democracy is a western concept, and Im not interested in cross crediting it to other nations as if we have the cultural upperhand, democracy is an ideology not a religion, Irans ability to see out it right to fair representation is its issue, not western concepts of state and church, and of the evils of foreign religion.

I've never seen a person die before, so theres always a first, I think the thing that affected me the most was watching her eyes while her lungs probably filled with blood and she drowned and went into shock. She looked stunned and confused and terrified.

So on the eve of 36, I raise a glass to Neda Soltan, and thank her for showing me in her loss, all that I've got, my rights to freedom in the context of my life here, and that my struggles as a Maori and a woman are things worth raising attention to.