Like an unwanted phoenix...

It's that time of year again.. well at least I assume it is. It's always hard to tell, but the bored former-Grind resident sitting behind the polling booth certainly looked like he wanted me to take part in a democratic process of some kind. Either that or he was desperate for a conversation.

There are more obvious reminders though. Notably the Indian guy whose name has been plastered over every chalkable surface in the University. Believe it or not, despite his saturation coverage I still don't know his name. All I know is that he's Indian, he's running for Finance Officer, and I hate him.

It's not just the WSU going through the motions though. Auckland and Vic's student populations have also been in the news. Craccum has sold the rights to its front cover to Salient Magazine (Vic Uni's mag). And we've seen yet another inconsequential student protest about student loans (I think the public gets it already, students are opposed!).

At the other end of the spectrum we've also seen the rise of the Student Right. Anna Nuzum (a former Hamiltonian now LLBer at Vic) has written a few public rants, Emily Braunstein is the new editor of Salient, and Pro-Choice vs. No Choice arguments have also popped up on the forum of Critic (Otago's publication).

So student politicians rise out of the ashes after months of us never having heard anything from them. You can be sure that they'll sink back into the ashes soon enough. Rising again when they need us lowly students, e.g. when they don't want to look bad and lonely on one of their protest marches.

Or, when they need us to help make quorum at one of their 'public' meetings (so they can take a decision to raise our WSU levies). At least in the latter situation you get a free sausage or a beer....if only real democracies were able to do that to increase voter turnout....