Rid New Zealand of graffiti

This week we were given a question. Is graffiti art or just messy? I was conflicted but I chose the fact that graffiti is a nuisance. I also created graffiti themed art in my book. I hope by the end of reading my argument you have been persuaded. I enjoyed learning about how much it costs to clean up graffiti and laws around it. Next time I would use the word 'ego' less.

Is graffiti art or just messy?

I strongly believe that graffiti is messy and a nuisance rather than art. Tagging is a way to make anything look untidy and ruined; and what for, nothing but ego. Is spray painting your name haphazardly on someone else's hard earned property really art?Graffiti is messy, annoying , destructive and costly to clean up.

Graffiti is illegal. In the eyes of the Christchurch city council graffiti is a crime which when caught can be fined up to $ 2,000. In New zealand it is illegal to damage or deface any property which is not your own. Furthermore it is illegal to perform graffiti without council consent or the owner of the property you wish to create graffiti on. For a first tagging offence, involving just a single case of tagging and with no permanent damage, you’d normally get a fine of between $100 and $200. As you commit more and more graffiti crimes the fine gets more costly. Performing graffiti is a criminal activity.

Graffiti is also extremely costly to get rid of. Since 2006 the Auckland council has spent nearly twenty million dollars on cleaning up graffiti. Graffiti cleanup is costing Christchurch ratepayers nearly $900,000 a year. All of this money is being spent on graffiti clean up rather than the things we really need and for what; people with an uncontrollable need to ruin some property with a can of paint?People volunteer to clean up graffiti but you still need something to clean it off with. Equipment costs money and the graffiti artist is not likely to help pay for or clean up the annoyance they have created.

There is really no point to tagging, just putting your name on someone else's property like you own it. Is that really necessary?Tagging is all about ego; putting your name in plain sight for all to see. People can paint on offensive words and phrases on council or private property just because they feel like it. How wrong is that? People can put themselves in serious danger to tag a hazardous area such as the top of a building. Is painting your name just for ego on something really worth risking danger and a criminal record?

In conclusion graffiti is a crime which puts people in harm’s way and can be fined up to $2000. Millions of dollars are spent cleaning up narcissistic paint when we need the money for other things such as helping New Zealand families get over the poverty line. I do admit that seeing some well painted murals makes me smile but for the most part graffiti is egoistic tagging which is 100% unnecessary.Graffiti is a waste of time, money and effort and in my opinion it needs to stop !

Planning.

Circle art.

WALT: create a picture using a compass. This is my complex circle art I made with a compass. I really enjoyed creating this art. Next time I would add more colour.

The Church

WALT: Identify what it means to be a disciple of Jesus including a life long relationship with him, living according to his values and worshiping God. Our task was to fill in the appropriate words in the spaces in this paragraph. We used words from the word bank along with our prior knowledge to complete this task.

Journey to God

WALT: Use and art media of your choice to create an artwork showing the Pilgrim Church enjoying the fullness of God’s Kingdom. Here is my art of people on a journey to holiness. I am proud of my work and hope you like it. It is supposed to mean that people have read the bible and the great things Jesus did and wanted to become holy.

Our freedom

WALT: use words and pictures to convey our thoughts. As a part of our social justice topic we created an image with a quote to go with it. I am happy with my images seeming I made them on google drawings rather than sumo paint.

Circles

WALT: Identify parts of a circle. I enjoyed working with a compass and learning about the parts of a circle. Next time I would draw the circle using pen and paper and upload it on my slideshow.

The ride around hornby

We have been working on recounts in our class so we can prepare for the eastle test. We have been learning about how to add more interesting words and ideas. My next steps would be to use more advanced punctuation.

On the first Sunday of the holidays my friends and I went on a bike ride. We spent four hours on our bikes and travelled all around hornby for fun.

First I called Annabelle and organised to meet her at about one o'clock to start the bike ride. Once Annabelle and I met up we went to pick up Sione.

After about five minutes of biking we got to Sione’s house where we planned to pick up him and Mathan. Sione’s Dad told us they were not there and we left. I got a little bit annoyed because we planned this prior to the event. Annabelle and I hung around the corner to see if they were coming but there was no sign of them. However we did see Neil whom we mistook for Marcus. Once we figured out his true identity Annabelle started screaming at him.

We then left to get Nathan. Once we got to Nathan’s house it took him ages to open the door. Annabelle was the one who knocked and I stayed out by the bikes in case it was the wrong house. Finally he got out his scooter and decided to come with us.

With Nathan we then went to see if Sione and Mathan were home. On waterloo corner I got a phone call from Madison who said she couldn’t come because she was out. Sione and Mathan were still not home however we did get directions to Mathan’s house to see if they were there.

We made the journey back to the other side of hornby. Despite our efforts they were nowhere to be seen. We started to get annoyed because we couldn’t find Sione and Mathan anywhere.

After yet another unsuccessful search we decided to go to wycolla park. We stayed there for about an hour just talking and hanging out.

We then went out of wycolla park to go home when Mathan and Sione pulled up in their car. “ where the heck were you “ we asked. “ Around the place” they replied. Then they got out of the car and joined us. Soon after Steffan pulled out of wycolla park on his bike followed by Nicolas and Chloe. Mathan then went to the dairy to buy lollies and a soft drink. Everyone showed up after far too long in their absence. Well, at least they showed up.

After the reunion we went to the bmx track where we met our next obstacle… Labron and two of his friends followed us there and started picking on us so we moved to another part of the track. Mathan started rolling the soft drink down the track and watching it fizz up. By the time we had spent ten minutes at the track the bottle was frothy and full of dirt. We all got a go at bringing destruction towards the poor bottle.

Labron threatened to steal our bikes because we wouldn’t let him ride them. When we were by the first turn of the track smashing the fizzy bottle when Labron picked up my bike and started riding it. We all yelled at him and he threw it on the dirt.

I then picked up my bike and we decided to leave before things got any worse. We retreated to wycolla park where I checked my phone for the time and needed to get home. I had a quick look for Annabelle but couldn’t find her so I rode home by myself.

After the bike ride I was very tired but glad I went. We had so much fun and managed to completely destroy the fizzy bottle. I would definitely go on another bike ride with everyone.

Climate change

WALT..Understand that human actions affect our climate. As a class we have been working on climate change because it links in with our topic of social justice. I really enjoyed learning about climate change and global warming. There are lots of things you will find interesting. I found deciding how to format the information hard. My next steps would be to include more things we can do to help stop climate change.