The following are snippets from articles in previous issues of Fuse to give you a feel for some of the issues and personalities we have been profiling.

Issue 1

On the breadline By Paola Ghirelli
Maria Rorke, from the hardship office at Victoria University, says a student allowance is not enough to live on. Work and Income has a "cliff face" abatement policy that discourages students from earning over the threshold amount of $135.13 gross a week. If a student earns above this, the allowance is not reduced, but stopped for the week. This policy has not altered since 1992.

Issue 2

In the shadow of the Datsuns By Aidan Smith
Hamilton's music scene has never looked better..........Hamilton bands are looking to leave the small stages of the Waikato for the big concert arenas of Australia and Europe. Many are in the process of recording original music and searching the international market for places to play, because they don't produce material that "sells" here, or attracts interest from the industry.

Light(en) up, it;s only a joint By Xavier Goldie
While marijuana has been said to exacerbate pre-existing mental conditions, alcohol has been linked to more cases of mental illness in this country than any other psychotropic substance. Why then do we not treat marijuana the same as alcohol and tobacco - as a health issue rather than a criminal one? The current legal status of marijuana does more harm than good. Not only does it completely ignore the need for a holistic health approach towards drug use, but it also makes convicted criminals out of people who simply want to light up every once in a while.

In For A Penny By Simon Pound
Lets hope Parekura's weight loss programme leads to the political
success enjoyed by David Lange, rather than Donna Awatere Huata
.......... so it's a brave man who makes his personal the political. Especially seeing that Horomia is mainly known for two things - being fat and mangling his words when he speaks in Parliament.

Scarfie grind: a week in the life of............
Sandy Pushpamangal, President, Waikato Student Union, Australasia's first international student union president
"At 10am I had to call an emergency Hardship Committee Meeting to approve an application for a student to buy some food. It wouldn't happen if there was a universal allowance in place for all tertiary students."
"....... every morning I remind myself that I have more to do than I could ever imagine. I never thought being a student politician could be such a huge thing."

Issue 3

From the Top By Paola Ghirelli
Laila Dookia, only 20, is the new face of C4's Official NZ Top 40. And she still hasn't finished her Bachelor of Broadcasting Communications at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology ......

Taking it to the Wire
When you meet Noelle McCarthy you're struck by her resemblence to Irish journalist Veronica Guerin. She smokes like her, talks as fast as her
and her bold red lips suggest the animated air Guerin is famous for. And of course she has a burning passion to get to the truth. There's plenty to test that passion because she is in a job where there is always a hell of a lot to do. While her job may have a neat, business card title: "Noelle McCarthy, News and Editorial Director, 95bFM", the action behind the title is far from neat and tidy. There is nothing average about her average day.

Scarfie grind: a week in the life of.....
Sandeep SherGill, student representative at Te Wananga O Aotearoa (Mangere Campus) shares her days of kapa haka and council meetings. "Totally exhausted, returned to uni to go straight into acting class. We were currently working on script Verbatim, which required a shift into a very different head space (a compilation of interviews with prisoners, their families and families of the murder victims). For the rest of the day ran around trying to find the student reps from other campuses to discuss the formation of the first Te Wananga o Aotearoa (TWOA) sports, kapa haka, singing and drafts/chess team. Being a new campus (second year in operation), a lot needs to be set up for the student body....."