Statement on radio to be read out

Hullo! Just after my last post below the phone went, and I was able to read out my satement on 'status'. It will come over NZ national radio around 10 to 11a.m. on Chris Laidlaw's program next Sunday. My first contribution to this debate was to send an email saying: "I - B.P.Lilburn - was not being given the status I deserved and while many who had status were less deserving. Of course many listeners would put my outburst down to 'sour grapes', but the truth remains that some people gain high status for doing verly little of any worth." I sent this in a a joke, but thought better of it and replaced it with the statement in the blog entry below.

The question of status

If anyone reaches this blog interested in procuring the book 'Okraalom', please get in touch through the address B.L. 137 Milton St. Christchurch 8024 NZ, or `phone 64 3 9812969, or email sambas@paradise.net.nz.

Yesterday I was rung up from Radio NZ (national, not commercial, radio) and asked if I would record an e-mail by `phone that I had sent to the station. They had put on a program on 'status', and were going to refer to it again this coming Sunday. Today they were supposed to ring me again for me to make the statement, but I'm not particularly surprised or 'put out' that they haven't rung, though it's a bit of a nuisance to be told to expect something next day that does not happen. This sort of thing happens because the compiling of an interview and views program probably involves planning a dozen or more 'leads' or ideas when only a small number of them are eventually followed up and used. Anyway, I thought it worthwhile to present the statement here on my blog:

"Good on the factory-cleaning man you interviewed last Sunday - not only him and his like but on people who look after small children and the needy elderly. Where's the time such people would have to think about status? In my view, achieving status in many cases comes more from current fashions, the media and cultural 'status makers' than from the deservedness of the status achiever."