The Barfies are Back!

Fall is upon us here in New Zealand and another school year is underway at the University of Otago which means the students are back in town. In a big way. Here in Dunedin, Uni students are known as "Scarfies" due the traditional blue and gold scarves worn to rugby games during the freezing winters. However, I like to call them Barfies, due to their drinking habits.

Compared to the States, New Zealand takes a very relaxed attitude toward drinking, with 18 the drinking age and drinking allowed in most public areas. From what I've seen, Barfies definitely take advantage of this freedom and take partying to a whole new level, a scary one. On any given night you can see hordes of young drunk students stumbling out to the pubs or find a couch burning party at some one's flat. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, Dunedin streets are filled with trash, broken furniture and smashed bottles, sidewalks are splattered with puke, dark corners smell like urine, bikes lie vandalized in bikes racks, and sometimes, even store fronts and cars are vandalized.

Now, I'm familiar with partying in college, but I have never seen a University involuntarily encourage it or a community so accepting of its negative consequences. Most people seem to have the attitude that it's "just kids having fun." Cleaning up puke for the hundredth time: Fun? Hmmmmm.

The front page of the freshman orientation activity guide published in a weekly paper advertised sales on cases of beer. This years annual "Freshman Toga Parade" (think Animal House) down Dunedin's main street turned into a violent riot with vandalized cars and broken store-front windows after older students living above the stores began throwing trash, food, vomit, and feces (yes, you read that right) down on the new students below. Shop owners were outraged and posters went up all over campus asking students if this type of behavior is what they wanted their degree to represent. However, no other steps have been taken to curtail student partying and only 3 out of over 2,000 students were arrested. Furthermore, the legal, cultural and psychological consequences for bad behavior are not very harsh or severe here so why should anyone care?

OK, I just have to ask, who in their right mind would allow thousands of drunk teenagers to have a toga party in the middle of the city??