Nexus 24 2015

NEXUS MAGAZINE News
NEXUS
NEWS
NEWS FEATURE – NGA PITOPITO KŌRERO
NEXUS NEWS: A REVISION SESSION BEFORE EXAMS
Sam Marelich and James Raffan
In what will be the first of a series of retrospectives, we look back at some of
the stories we have covered in 2015. Hopefully to shed some new light on the
developing nature of some of the articles that we wrote about once or twice
and then abandoned like a one night stand. Some of these stories have real and
substantive change, others leave us a little dead inside. These are the stories
that affected us this year…
Dearly Departed
The WSU said goodbye to their events manager prior to B-Semester Orientation.
He will soon be joined by Operations and Services Manager Pene Delaney. Pene is
a former WSU and NZUSA President, A two term SJS Chairman and a life member
of all three organisations. His jokes will not be missed on production day.
The WSU Board also had their share of departures. Last year’s beaten Presidential
Candidate Tau Marsden dismissed himself for family reasons while Teina Walters
was bounced for not showing up to the first three meetings without notifying
anyone, a fate that would later be shared by Sophie Miller who forgot to put her
apologies into the board whilst teaching in Raratonga. Finally, Vice-President Roy
Mazarodze informed the board around the Semester break that he would not be
returning due to personal reasons. All of these led to the appointment of Kale,
Jadeine and Charlotte and the elevation of Kate Lunn to VP.
Nexus also saw two big departures this year. Jess proved good enough at her job
that Auckland stole her mid print run and Nexus stalwart and former Editor, Co-
Editor and Digital Editor Alix Higby is departing and graduating (!!!). We will miss
them both and although neither departure is really related to this story we felt it
was a good place to do it and it’s the last issue.
Refugee Crisis in New Zealand/Central Europe/Pretty Much the Rest of the World
When Elaine, Sam and Alix first covered this story a month ago it was with a degree
of hope and an understanding that we needed to do more. It also highlighted
a willingness by people in this country to do exactly that. Shayma’a Arif of
Humanitarian Relief Waikato and Tim O’Donovan of the Salvation Army both
talked about a non political effort to help people. Nexus joined with the masses
in calling for our government to do more to solve one of the largest humanitarian
crisis of the 21st century.
A month later and there is still a feeling of hopelessness and despair. Recently
the Russian government broadened its definition of terrorism to include anyone
who disagrees with the Assad regime and started to destroy the camps of rebel
insurgents instead of ISIL troops. It’s a pretty sure bet that this won’t elevate the
flood of people leaving their homeland in search of a better life.
While things don’t appear to be getting any better soon some comfort is offered
by the United Nations forming a kickstarter for Syrian refugee aid last week.
You can find out more by visiting www.kickstarter.com/aidrefugees
The Year of The Underdog, The Really Racist, Sexist, Underdog
When the year started we were greeted with Donald Trump descending from an
escalator to announce that he was running for President to “Make America Great
Again” and drive out all the Mexican criminals and rapists by building a big wall
and having Mexico pay for it.
Instantly Sam Marelich and James Raffan fell in love with the idea of a Trump
Presidential race because no one thought for a second we would still be talking
about it in October.
4 N.24 / V.47 SUMMER