Firearm Foolery

Young Tipene’s parents, as all parents do, wanted him to grow up to be a peaceful and worthy young man. Part of his nurturing process was not to allow toys or words of violence into the house. To protect him. So there were no guns, no talk of cowboys or bush rangers and definitely no television or movies of that ilk!

I’m no expert, but my pennyworth was that you can’t shelter kids from anything these days and a little education goes further than an outright ban! If you think about it, the poor kid could hardly move because he couldn’t go fishing, he couldn’t test himself against his peers and he couldn’t even watch the television news!

Geographically we are distant, so I never saw Tipene again until he was about eighteen, he had grown up to be a big, strapping lad with a broad grin. Imagine my surprise when I asked him what his favourite pastime was and his reply was hunting! So presumably at some time he was bound to have disappointed his parents! But that’s the thing about parenting, there will always be outside influences on their offspring.

This past Boxing Day we received a message that Tipene was in hospital, and although I don’t do Facebook, he had posted a message about the event, making himself out to be somewhat of a hero. I didn’t read the message but this is what I’ve been told: The family were doing some target ‘practice’ with an air rifle – ‘the most powerful type that there is!’ Tipene was shot in his bum cheek and the slug went through the muscle almost to his anus! The surgeon recommended leaving the slug in there, despite it being a lead slug! Question: Duck shooters aren’t allowed to use lead pellets, so how come air rifle slugs can be made of lead? Anyway; adding to the ‘hero’ bit, the slug that Tipene took in his behind, had he not been ‘in the way’, would have struck a ten year old child in the head!

So here’s my sermon, oh would-be-gun-toters and players-with-firearms: First learn some firearm safety from an expert! Second, don’t make shooting a family affair – sure kids can learn to shoot, but one on one with an a-d-u-l-t! Third is firearm safety 101, never point a firearm at anyone – even if you think it is unloaded; that’s n-e-v-e-r! Fourth, and the forty-odd year old uncle did this, don’t pull the trigger unless you are absolutely certain of your target! As well and associated, be certain that the area behind the target is s-a-f-e (should you miss the target)!

A final thing, manufacturers fit a safety catch to their firearms. With all due respect to them, don’t ever put your faith in a safety catch! In fact if you can remove it, so you can’t put any trust in it and follow the safety rules.

Firearms are built to kill things, don’t forget that!

The Lonely Quail

A few Californian Quail visit us occasionally, they are not at all common but two or three take up residence each year. They don’t seem to increase in numbers, perhaps because of predators – I saw a cream-coloured ferret down the paddock the other day but it got away due the delay of unlocking my rifle! It is not only predators though, quail don’t look after their chicks well. Well, that’s according to Bert who used to buy clutches of eggs and set them under a bantam. The little buggers run off and die in the long grass, he reckoned. It was he who released them into the wild around here.

We hear them before we see them, ‘Ki kuu ku!’ Is a call they often use to keep in touch with each other. I like to think when they start calling and I answer them (sounding nothing like their call) they call back and we have quite a lengthy conversation. But that’s not their only verbalisation, they chatter and cluck away to each other as well.

They are timid little birds, and they feed on our lawn, but when they are alarmed or see us, they run off at great speed! If threated they will fly off as well. They have a single note call, ‘Kuu!’ which seems to be a call they us to find another bird, perhaps a mate. They will fly to a high point to call and to listen for a reply. It is a plaintive call, and if you know why, it is a bit sad.

Recently there has been that plaintive call around our house because a quail has taken up residence behind the glasshouse. We can see it from the kitchen window and we thought it was trying to hide there, but failing because we could see the rear one third of its body! It comes out to peck at grass but doesn’t seem very interested in the grain I tossed down for it. Other birds soon scoff it! I poked my head around the corner of the other end of the glasshouse and called, ‘Kuk, kuk, kuk.’ And the bird came very close, then darted away to the other end – confused I think.

My old forestry crone, Barry called, and I asked him what he knew about quail, ‘I know their breast meat is tasty!’ was his laconic reply. We then discussed if this particular bird was a male or a female, and he thought, female, but a Google search revealed it is male with his larger top-knot and black cheeks. Barry too enjoyed watching his antics as he hid, then came out to feed, caught sight of us through the window, and ran back behind the glasshouse to show us his one-third behind.

I’ve come to the conclusion that our quail is lonely, and sits behind the glasshouse to admire his reflection, thinking it’s another of his kind, company if you like. So what should I do? The chances of him finding a companion, and better still, a mate, would be improved if he kept moving. Behind the glasshouse is not so safe because stoats, ferrets and cats do occasionally slip past the end of my rifle barrel.

I decided not to chase him away, nor to mask the glass from reflecting. I feel sorry for him though. Even mowing the lawn close to him, didn’t faze him, he remained, but his food supply is not quite so good now. For the past three days he has flown to the top of the water tank to call out, and then returned to the glasshouse. But as I type, he trotted past my window and flew to the top of an archway where a Clematis climbs. He called there for maybe ten minutes, and then trotted off towards the shrubbery. I hear him still in the distance.

It will be interesting to see if he returns by morning.

No Cultural Bridge

August 2001 there was an international kerfuffle between Australia and Norway over a group of mainly Hazara Afghani refugee-asylum seekers who were rescued by the container ship Tampa, which tried to land them on Australian territory. The Australian government didn’t want a bar of them, so for a time there was an impasse.

Helen Clark the New Zealand prime minister, accepted one hundred and fifty of the asylum seekers and most were eventually granted citizenship which allowed a ‘reunification of families’. This allowed a young man, Abdul-Qader, to bring his parents and his three brothers into the country with a smooth path to citizenship.

Apparently this family were hard working and retained contacts in the Middle East so were able to set up a business exporting certain recycled goods. The business thrived and Abdul-Qader’s younger brother, Ahmad was put in charge of a branch of the business, which proved quite successful.

From a different direction, through a bit of luck and a little help an orphaned East African girl, Zuri, arrived in New Zealand to study and through her own hard work, she coped with the change in culture and forged a modest life for herself, formed relationships, found a good job and was granted New Zealand citizenship.

Ahmad met and took a fancy to Zuri and a relationship bloomed and flourished. Ahmad was attentive to Zuri and was generous towards her but his parents threw a spanner in the works and told Ahmad that they didn’t approve of the relationship! The main issue was that Ahmad and his family are Islam and Zuri is Christian. Or was it that Zuri had no connections to be taken advantage of? Ahmad seemed not to take notice of his parents and did not appear to follow Islam closely. The relationship continued for over two years much to the chagrin of his parents who often voiced their objection.

Ahmad was often called up to the family home for business and family meetings but of course Zuri never afforded the opportunity to meet his parents. After one of the family meetings Ahmad returned to tell Zuri that his parents had chosen a wife for him in Afghanistan. Zuri wanted to finish the relationship there and then, but Ahmad wanted to continue and asked his brothers if he could possibly resist his parents. The reply was a flat, ‘No!’

The relationship began to falter as least as far as Zuri was concerned, but not completely. Ahmad, together with his family went for a prolonged business trip back to Afghanistan. During this visit, Ahmad married Razia but returned to New Zealand alone because there were still formalities to be worked through regarding the New Zealand Immigration Service.

Ahmad did not to come clean to Zuri at first, but she heard through a mutual friend. Ahmad saw it as no constraint to his marriage should Zuri remain as his concubine, so expected the relationship to continue. Zuri had more sense and walked away, after telling him what she thought of him. Ahmad, presumably pining for Zuri, began drinking and causing bar brawls, especially if he knew Zuri was within the vicinity. If this was meant to impress her, it failed miserably.

After the immigration formalities, Razia arrived, knowing nobody in the city, except for Ahmad and she possessed only rudimentary English. Ahmad did not stay by her side, but tried still to court Zuri and continued with his drinking and brawling! Razia found Zuri’s phone number from Ahmad’s phone and whenever he was ‘missing’ she texted her with abuse! Zuri put a stop to that by threatening Ahmad with police action that would likely be detrimental to his business.

This whole scenario has left three people unhappy with their lot! But it raises some questions.

·       If the family were refugees, how come it was so easy to go back to Kabul for the wedding?

·       If there was coercion on behalf of Ahmad’s parents to force him to marry, it is illegal under New Zealand law. So should we as a nation accept that this goes on?

·       Was Ahmad gutless in not standing up to his parents? Or was he wanting the best from both worlds anyway?

·       By forcing the wedding, Ahmad’s parents are sticking with Afghani culture. Should refugees encompass a host nation’s ways and ethics? Aren’t refugees escaping from their old ways?

·       Ahmad boozes, which is apparently forbidden in Islam, which begs the question, are Ahmad and his family taking advantage of New Zealand freedoms on one hand and being strict Muslims when it suits their purposes?  

·       The average Kiwi would not be happy with Ahmad and his family. Does that matter?

Zuri never followed her Christian religion closely, and whether or not Ahmad was truly irresolute about Islam is difficult to know, certainly his parents would have caused friction had the relationship continued. Religion can become an intense subject but at least here in New Zealand over the past thirty years, antagonism between main Christian religions has almost disappeared, so we don’t want it all to start over again with other religions! There are more important issues in life. When it comes down to it, everyone has a right to believe and pray to or for whatever they like, but the big rider is: as long as they don’t interfere anyone else. Belief is an individual thing and therefore who does a public display of it benefit?

The bottom line in all of this is that, sad as it was for Zuri at the time, she is now better off through not associating with Ahmad!