Reasons to be mindful:

Before leaving for the last great communist state I had been part of a team of writers. We had been battling to reestablish political satire on the televisions of our own nation at a time when there had been none for several years.

A revolution had passed without comment. There was a growing feeling that someone wanted to keep it that way. Indeed, I had a vaguely insulting letter from the television authorities stating categorically that they had "no plans" to air political satire or to produce it themselves.

Aha, thought I. That's just what I would write if I were a good little Nazi functionary.

Daily our freedoms were eroded and we were treated with disrespect. I was greatly heartened by the response I received to my modest recruiting advertisement requesting that a volunteer force raise up its communal finger.

Polyticks Poke (Team Satire) eventually included the talents of such well known professionals as Rhys Jones, Executive Producer, who developed an interest in political satire during his term as a London Parliamentary Press Gallery reporter, and John Carlaw, Project Director, known for his award winning documentaries, at that time, "Hillary" and "Revolution".

Warner Music NZ Ltd. allowed us to use some of their playlist without charge. Many around town seemed to wish us well.

Beneath our generals Carlaw and Jones, we were fifty brave irregular pioneers, artists, singers, dancers, some already well known, all of us working professionals, who volunteered to land that night as Polyticks Poke before the cameras, drawing a steady rain of spontaneous applause and bouquets of laughter.

It was only later, back at barracks, when those who might have aided us cast their lot with the enemy, that we succumbed to sniper fire and the occasional solid blast of ill will.

We knew we could not be punished for making fun in a free land. But we were unable to break out of our hard won beachhead. Within days came the news that a 'new' satirical TV show was to hit the airwaves.

The enemy generals had tapped their favoured in-house solution to damp the itch that we had begun to scratch. Their men had been among us, had studied our plans, had dug up their old guns and recalibrated them. They didn't shoot at us.

The old guns were, we suspected, to be used to lob dummy rounds close to the enemy positions to generate the illusion of battle. And so it was. They spoke, then died away. Silence again.

Later a younger team under another general bit the bullet and did themselves proud, I have heard, emulating the Polyticks Poke plan of attack, though perhaps they had not known of us.

But we had decamped by then. Polyticks Poke demobbed. Our tattered sweat stained banner twisting forlornly in the breeze.

We had not won the battle, nor could we without sufficient materiel support, but, behind cartoonist Dylan Horricks, we had fired the first volley. Privateers we were in a way. Mercenaries unhired.

Voluntary exile began to look an attractive option.

I toyed with the idea of applying (begging?) yet again to Creative New Zealand - the official arbiters of national taste - and asking for funding to observe how the Chinese take over of Hong Kong was effecting personal freedoms. I had planned to observe a theatre troupe, perhaps one of those responsible for some of the colour on the news broadcasts of the mass rallies occuring there at that time.

But why bother? I had already learned - more than once - that Creative New Zealand was in truth a government department and had no interest in assisting the likes of me or others with a similar finger pokingly irrepressible spirit. We tend to get in the way. Draw attention to things. We are useful only as long as we can be used.

It's not what you know, it's who, did you know? And you really better make sure you toe the line.

Navel gazing rapidly loses its appeal. Not much to be found there. Back to work. Duty calls.

Polyticks Poke was remobilised as a force of three. Our last foray was Parliamentarian Paint Ball Tag in 1998, where two teams of Parliamentarians were to open fire on each other. The then Leader of the Opposition, the Right Honourable Helen Clarke had heard of the plan and was considering it, we were informed by her batman.

Other parliamentarians and electorate officials, all told five as I recall, had confirmed that they would attend. The media were informed and the day before we were contacted by TVNZ and TV3 news for confirmation of the next days battle.

We made a judgment that day based on bitter experience. Can a parliamentarian be trusted?

I made the decision to withdraw. Confirmed attendance numbers were not high enough to guarantee victory. We would need to rely on sympathetic coverage and I would not risk losses. We withdrew and drank tea. The tea was good.

We live. Wounds heal.

A foreign expedition was planned.

Such extreme sports as political satire are not really dangerous in a modern model democracy such as New Zealand.

But it is not like that in China. It is possible to suffer the same fate as the editor of Beijing Scene { http://www.beijingscene.com }, who was in solitary confinement for a month before being deported.

There are a few locally edited lifestyle magazines in Beijing these days, but Beijing Scene remains my favourite. The editor, an American journalist and long time resident of China, was swept up in a little diplomatic raspberry blowing with Washington at the time the USA had been caught attempting to conceal surveillance devices in the Chinese Government's newly purchased equivalent to Air Force One and had bumped a Chinese Air Force plane to destruction.

I have read the article that is alleged to have created offense. Mr. Savitt wrote a piece in remembrance of the tenth anniversary of Tianamen Square. He was there at the time and suffered as many others did but his article contained nothing that could be construed as subversive and less that could be considered insulting. Not enough for the penalty he suffered.

But his experience is worth noting. Foreign visitors exist in China by grace.

Modern China is still a world away in many respects though increasingly as East meets West we share many of the same trials and dreams.

Guaranteed free education, quality accessible health care, affordable housing, and the universal rights of all mankind to free peaceful expression of their identity. Full employment in a safe environment the responsibility of representative government. Where in the world could there be such a place?

Our world, in some quarters, is more ardently and selfishly capitalist than a gigolos dream.

China is becoming a superpower, again, as it once was of old.

So there can be no faulting a plan to study the culture and language of the most populous nation on Earth while steering clear of internal politics. Its just good manners.

But for old time's sake, snippets of material from Polyticks Poke are archived at polyticks.teambridge.net - lest we forget.

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