(Part one of a continuing series entitled “It’s Only Rugby (But I Like It)”.)

We’re far too precious, arrogant, and biased when it comes to our national rugby team, says Jeremy Bryson.

It’s finally here: Rugby World Cup 2011 has begun. The biggest sporting event this country has ever hosted kicked off on Friday night, with our All Blacks taking on the Ikale Tahi of Tonga. It’s supposed to a be a big party, but the mood was brought down nine days out from the tournament, when one British sportswriter did what British sportswriters do best: ruffling Kiwi feathers by criticizing the All Blacks.

Ruffling feathers? Mark Reason, a veteran English sports columnist who now lives New Zealand, attempted to pluck the chicken bald using a pair of hot tweezers operated by a particularly stupid and ill-tempered manatee. Insisting that the All Blacks are masterful cheats, the column (published on Stuff.co.nz and in a number of Fairfax publications) pointed to a few instances from this year’s Tri Nations in which New Zealand players had obstructed opposition players in the lead up to tries.

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In  which the candidates (or some of them) for the upcoming MUSA Elections explain to you who they are and why they should get your vote.

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THE 2012 STRATEGIC PLAN AND WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH MUSA FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR.

By Jessica Bignell

MUSA’s Strategic Plan for 2012 was released to the membership last Wednesday – you may have seen the shiny documents handed out on Massey Open Day, or the less-glossy newsprint version in last week’s CHAFF.

Throughout the year, MUSA has referred to this as the key document which will guide the Association through to next year, regardless of the outcome of VSM. Throughout the year, students have been told to patiently wait for the Strategic Plan while their questions remained unanswered. And throughout the year, while we’ve seen cuts already made at MUSA, we’ve been told to wait until the Strategic Plan was released to be told why.

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Jeremy Bryson looks back at the swine flu pandemic, and how news of impending catastrophe affects us.

People tend to remember where they were when significant events in world history took place: the first moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. (It’s true: Ashhurst kindy; my first day at work; my surprise 40^th birthday BBQ – Ed.) Me? I remember where I was when news broke that swine flu had made its way to New Zealand in May 2009.

I was sitting in my damp and cold flat on South Street, eating some kind of Chinese pork dish my flatmate had cooked up, and watching that episode of Bro Town where the boys become vegetarians and befriend a pig.

The show was interrupted by an announcement from Minister of Health Tony Ryall that a group of Rangitoto College students, recently returned from a trip to Mexico, had contracted this new illness colloquially referred to as “swine flu”. Swine flu, or H1N1 as it came to be known, had been in the news a lot in the preceding days, having already killed more than 80 people in Mexico and left another 1,300 sick there and in the United States.

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By Div Collins

On the 22nd of July, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb in central Oslo. The blast killed seven, injured others, and caused significant damage to nearby buildings. While the Norwegian Prime Minister was in the vicinity (the explosion only went so far as to smash his office windows), the governmental surroundings must have made the attack look like an end unto itself.

Unfortunately, the bomb wasn’t just a statement. It was also a distraction. 90 minutes later, Brevik landed on Utøya Island, which was hosting around 600 youths taking part in a summer camp sponsered by the ruling Labour Party. They’ve seen tweets about the bombing, so when Brevik identifies himself as a police officer, they naturally gather round. Half an hour goes by before the police first begin to hear reports of shooting on the island. It isn’t until another hour after that that Breivik finally stops, apprehended while offering no resistance.

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Why a United Nations Emergency Peace Service might take the military and political controversy out of international intervention.

By Amy Thompson.

Peace Nerd!

That’s what I am, along with the 65 other people who joined me for a month in Bologna to learn how to go about building peace at the Bologna, Italy Symposium on Conflict Prevention, Resolution and Reconciliation.

These 65 comprised of individuals with 35 different nationalities - 43 different languages were spoken.  Five days a week we were listening and learning from 9am to 6pm (and occasionally from 8am to 6pm) thanks to some of the world’s great minds.  These included Jerry White (Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1997 for his work on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines), Betty Bigombe (Chief mediator between the LRA and the Government  of Uganda - a role which included her walking into the Ugandan forests alone to meet with the Lord’s Resistance Army because everyone else was too afraid to go), Jeffrey Mapandere (ex-guerrilla turned peacemaker and now senior advisor on the United Nations Mediation Support Unit’s Team of Experts) and more… (Jealous?)

So the question is: did we learn anything or did we spend our days wagging, strolling down ancient streets and sunbathing on golden beaches? Remarkably, we did manage, for the most part, to confine our tourist activities to the weekends, when we went to such tourist heavens as Venice, Verona and Florence.  During the week we diligently turned up for class (although a few of us were forced to do the Macarena and/or a traditional Georgian dance in recompense for being late).

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