A Busy Year Ahead

Happy sailings ahead for all this year

Another year is well underway and our little industry is as busy as it’s ever been with drama shoots happening in all reaches of the country, from North to South.

I wonder how this has come about given the apparent state of the world’s financial systems. Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that people still want entertainment even in tough times, or especially during tough times. Or perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that it’s still relatively cheap to shoot here in New Zealand. Or perhaps it’s not so much that it’s cheap to shoot here but that we can deliver the best quality for the best price.

Whatever the reasons, it’s great that people are busy in their work. Hopefully people are also happy in their work. And I guess we should be happy to have the work.

When I hear news of financial troubles in other parts of the so called ‘western world’ I figure things are going to come to a head. The ‘occupy’ movements have been pointing out the enormous and growing disparities between ordinary folk and the wealthy. As an example... in 2010 the average wage in the USA rose 3% to $33,000, whereas the average CEO’s income rose 28%, up to an average of $10.8 million! Obviously this sort of disparity can’t continue without there being serious social upheaval.

I look at the situation in Greece where there is massive unemployment and those who do have work are seeing their incomes being steadily eroded, and I wonder if, in fact I’m almost certain that if all the Greek millionaires and billionaires got together they could pay off their country’s debts tomorrow.

A local example which intrigued me... When I made a donation to the Women’s Refuge organisation a couple of years back we got a pamphlet from them which mentioned the generous donations that Telecom made, more than $250,000 over the previous five years. Then in a separate newspaper article I noted that Telecom’s CEO earned $5.1million in a single year.

And then we hear stories of factories in China where people working assembling Apple computers have been committing suicide because of piss-poor working conditions and lack of payment, and we know that Apple is one of the most financially successful companies around the world. I thought the ‘western world’ had abolished slavery in the 19th century.

I could go on and on about this subject but I’m sure we all have a growing awareness of what’s going on in the world. I just wonder where it will all lead.

I’m hoping we come around to the realization that it’s not a competition between socialism and capitalism, that societies need a healthy balance of the two. We need socialism for the holistic health of societies and we need capitalism for stimulus, and to finance socialism.

But enough of all that.

I’m away to work in a minute. That’ll keep me busy through till the end of April.

Many of you have work which will keep you busy for much longer. I hope everyone’s work goes well and that we make plenty of worthwhile and thoroughly watchable screen hours.

And while you’re at it, talk to your colleagues about joining the Techos’ Guild.

There are many folk working in our little industry seemingly unaware of the work the Guild does on their behalf. We can’t continue to do this work, most of which is voluntary, without the ongoing support of you folk who are out there working in the industry.