NZ is in the middle of a General Election - though we sometimes forget, especially online, because of all the fuss about dirty tricks and slanging matches overseas where some characters called Michael Palin and Barak O'Bama (a British comedian and an Irish-Arab terrorist) are competing to rule the richest nation on earth.

It is instructive on this Blog Action Day (or should I use the TLA which is BAD?) with its theme of "poverty, to notice how often providing a decent chance in life for the poor crops up in the candidates' and leaders' speeches. It does not matter whether the poor are local or foreign, the frequency count so far is the same - zero.

That's right I have not heard a single reference to giving a chance to those whom birth or circumstances have pushed down, though once or twice there have been references to protecting those with savings in the bank, and everyone is determinded to bid for the students vote, and law and order get ritual mentions... Many of the issues on which the politicians proclaim proud policy are important, a few are really important, not least the question of trust ;) But so far none of them have addressed poverty - it seems to have replaced sex in NZ as a topic one does not mention in polite company ;)