Dirty Politics...

We had our NUS SA State Conference last Friday. The sensitive and confidential nature of any deals brokered between factions prevents me from going into too much detail with regards to the nitty-gritty of stuff that happened. Officially, we as the NLC are the biggest faction in South Australia. This was due to our overwhelming victory in my uni elections yielding 4 delegates holding a total of 51 votes. Our uni gets more votes that any other uni in South Australia due to our large student population. What an achievement! We always used to be one of the smallest and weakest factions. Now we're the strongest. I am pretty sure we had the most delegates as well this year. It feels good walking into the room knowing that you are the ones holding the power. Not that we abused it though. This year's conference was much better than last year's. There wasn't any shouting and there were far fewer arguments. Things went along very smoothly although we had to resume the meeting late after a late start due to one of our delegates being late thus preventing quorum from being reached (NOLS didn't want to come in). Eventually things got underway.

Negotiations this year worked in our favour. We finally managed to get PK back into politics in a major way! He is now our NUS SA State President! Congratulations PK! Keith got in as Education Officer and Melissa as Welfare Officer. Not too bad obtaining the top job and two other positions! The rest of the positions went to Unity. We only had to conduct a ballot for Environment Officer because NOLS messed up all their other nominations causing them to be invalidated. NOLS were locked out of NUS SA for the 4th year in a row.

It's been tough trying to get PK back into action after the NLC Annual Conference. He had a hard time after losing faith in something he believed in with all his heart. It must be excruciating. Imagine putting all your sweat and effort while sacrificing so much just to make a difference in what you believe in. Then somebody comes along and just destroys all your hard work making what you believe in exactly the opposite of how it should be. It's such a shame. Why can't people let others who are more enthusiastic, capable and hardworking take a job at the expense of their own ambitions? It's not so much the matter of not winning the position. More of the manner in which the position was not obtained. Someone who worked so hard was completely shut out of the very organisation he was fixing up and made to look like the bad guy. Injustice is something I cannot tolerate. Especially if the people who inflict the injustice can enjoy themselves and strut their pride following their vile deed. It's not my job to be the judge, jury and executioner. At the same time, I can't stand to see injustice left unpunished. Such a terrible human weakness. Impatience. Why can't I just leave it be and let them get what is coming to them? Well, I just have to control myself and make sure that I don't go too far. Yet, the lure of exacting vengeance is so strong... Funny how I want to take revenge even though I am not the victim. This happens a lot in my life.

Anyways, it's difficult to concentrate on the holidays when there is so much work left to do. I've been in office for quite a bit in the past few days. I finally managed to get the microphone on my handphone changed since a lot of people were complaining that they can't hear me on the phone. Took only 5 minutes. Talk about good service! I'll be leaving for Melbourne this Saturday. Can't crash over at my friends' places when I'm there since most of them have either gone home or are going to be busy preparing for graduations. I just began to realise how long it's been already. 3 years. Only one left to complete my degree. Yet, it seems like it's so far away. It also doesn't feel that long. Time flies when you're having fun, huh? It's funny how for some people, the student who goes overseas can't wait to get back. Yet for others, the only reason for going back is to meet the family. I've grown attached to this place. Too attached perhaps. I've made a life for myself here. History. I don't want to leave it all behind. Yet, I don't know if I can leave what I have at home behind as well. A dilemma no? I have one year left to decide what I want to do; and I'm nowhere near at making the decision as I was 3 years ago. Only time will tell I guess...