OBITUARIES
- Murray Horton
MICHAEL MENCE
Michael Mence died in February 2025, in Germany, aged 83. He had resigned his longstanding CAFCA membership in August 2024, due to ill health. I had only recently reviewed his 2023 self-published book "Not All Plain Sailing" in Watchdog 165 (April 2024). I had covered his life in that, so the simplest thing is to slightly adapt that review. I'm a great fan of quirkiness. Well, this is a quirky book. And I didn't have to seek it out, it arrived in the mail, unannounced and unsolicited.
Who Was Michael Mence?
He was CAFCA's one and only member in Germany (there used to be another couple of them) and he was a bona fide local, not an expatriate Kiwi. He was a member from 1994 until 2024 and was an incredibly generous one - his most recent sub was accompanied by a donation of more than $1100. He was one of only two overseas members who have opted to continue receiving Watchdog in hard copy (the rest opted for online once we told them how much their subs would have to go up to cover the cost of vastly increased overseas postage rates).
Mike's generosity used to include a breathtaking degree of trust. Let me explain. He provided me with one of the highlights of the 2020 lockdown. I spent most of it alone, as Becky got stranded in the Philippines. The most exciting thing I regularly did was my weekly e-bike trip to the supermarket, prefaced by a visit to the central city NZ Post Box Lobby to see if there was any CAFCA mail.
Lo and behold, on one trip there was. Mike had sent his CAFCA sub and a donation - several hundred euros cash via ordinary snail mail. It arrived intact (and it was not the only time he did it). I then had the surreal experience of biking through the CBD ghost town looking for anywhere to exchange or deposit it (spoiler alert - there wasn't anywhere).
I had to keep it at home for weeks, comforted by the thought that if any burglar stole it, s/he wouldn't have been able to do anything with it either. Even when banks reopened, I had to keep waiting, as they told me that foreign currency exchange was not an essential service. Eventually I was able to get it into the CAFCA account. And Mike went on to make the shift to online banking (an expensive exercise from overseas).
This book was not the first of Mike's writings that he'd sent to us. From 2010-21 he self-published 11 annual issues of On My Radar, a beautifully curated "compendium about current global events in the form of a collection of newspaper/magazine/book extracts". "Not All Plain Sailing" is his memoirs and the title is self-explanatory. I daresay most people would endorse the sentiment if asked to summarise their own lives. Like most self-published books it could have done with more editing and proofreading, but that just adds to the quirkiness. A Long And Interesting Life
Born in England in 1941 to an English father of German descent and a German mother, the family moved to NZ when he was six. They lived in Christchurch. "However, she (his mother) disliked a lot of things about New Zealand and, when she heard that her former boyfriend had, after five years, been released from a Russian prisoner of war camp, divorced my father and went back to Europe".
His father remarried and his second wife was a Quaker, which influenced Mike's later beliefs. Mike went back to Europe at 18 and spent decades working in a series of senior jobs with major car firms and as a consultant to that industry (one of his bosses was an American called Filmer Paradise. You couldn't make that name up). He took early retirement and his life took another turn, which included getting heavily involved with the German Green Party (and joining CAFCA).
NZ Continued To Play A Big Part In His Life
He visited here three times, extensively travelling the country with his second wife, Cornelia Binder. "After a 30-year absence I returned to New Zealand in the 90s. I was shocked by changes I saw: The disappearance of the classless society and the disparity in distribution of wealth. In the city centres I saw queues at soup kitchens, people rummaging in litter baskets, and begging in the street. Symbolic of this destitution were the opportunity shops, not just in the cities, but even in the smallest towns right throughout the country".
He wrote a book "The Opportunity Shop. Growing Up In New Zealand 1948-1963", and about what had changed in the 30 years that he had been away He was a lifelong friend of my old Christchurch mates, and CAFCA stalwarts, Wolf and Ann Rosenberg. My obituaries of them are in, respectively, Watchdogs 114, May 2007, and 116, December 2007. There are a couple of photos of Wolf and Ann in the book and one captures Wolf exactly as I remember him, in his beret and duffle coat (in her February 2025 email advising Bill Rosenberg of Michael's death, his widow Cornelia wrote: "The Rosenbergs as well as other 'old' friends in NZ, and New Zealand as his homeland, were always in his heart and mind").
Reflection Wood
The most recent decades of Mike and Cornelia's life were spent in projects such as actively keeping alive, in Germany, memories of the Holocaust; and establishing a Reflection Wood, underpinned by "eight eco-cultural messages and twelve humanitarian values". They had hoped to establish a series of such woods but only got one up and running. And after more than two decades they found that they could no longer do the hard manual work required to maintain it and, at the time of writing this book, were looking for somebody to take it over. This is a book that is extremely personal - there is a page devoted to the illnesses, physical and mental, that he has suffered since he turned 65. Some of his memories are hilarious: "As I was prying into my father's financial affairs (I must have been 11 or 12 at the time) I suddenly came across a packet with a condom. I tried it on - just to see how it would suit me. As a result of this little experiment I discovered beyond doubt that my time had not yet come".
And some of his memories are heartbreaking, which haunt him until now. He had two kids, a son and a daughter. She died, aged 24, as a result of severe injuries sustained in a suicide attempt (that was ultimately successful). But he remains optimistic. "My life has not been all plain sailing but I'm glad to still be here, safe and sound with my wife Cornelia. I enjoy reading the daily newspapers and magazines. I still love to walk in the woods and wonderful environment I live in. I make a point of coming together with friends and relatives. I also cherish the short holidays and breaks in Germany and learn about new interesting things".
I can't recommend that you buy this book, because I'm pretty sure that it's not available for sale. I found it a fascinating read, despite (or, perhaps, because of) it's sheer quirkiness and higgledy-piggledy chronology. I've always said that we CAFCAlics constitute a very broad church. This is the proof. Thank you, Michael, for the gift. And thank you for your 30 years of CAFCA membership and accompanying great generosity.
LUIS JALANDONI
Luis died in June 2025, aged 90, in Utrecht, The Netherlands, his home in exile for decades. He was a major figure in the Philippine revolutionary Left. In 2010 I helped to organise an NZ speaking tour by him and his wife, fellow revolutionary, Coni Ledesma. That was in my capacity (from the 1990s until the 2020s) as Secretary of the former Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA). Both CAFCA and Anti-Bases Campaign each put several hundred dollars into that tour.
At the time of their 2010 NZ tour Luis was the International Representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), a post that he had held since 1977, and since 1994 he had been the Chairperson of the NDF's Negotiating Panel for peace talks with the Government of the Philippines. The NDF is the coalition of several underground groups, including the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People's Army, which has been waging a war of liberation throughout the Philippines for decades.
Luis and Coni were both veteran leading figures in the Philippine revolutionary Left. He was a Catholic priest in the 1960s and she was a nun. Both were founders of Christians for National Liberation, a member group of the NDF. When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, both went underground. They were both arrested and spent time as political prisoners. They left the clergy, and got married in 1974. They had lived in The Netherlands since 1976; they were the first Filipinos to apply for, and receive, political asylum there. They held Dutch passports and travelled extensively as NDF representatives.
The following is an extract from my 2010 Organiser's Report (slightly edited).
For a chunk of 2009 and all of 2010 there was only one PSNA project which consumed more and more of my time and that was organising the national speaking tour by Luis Jalandoni and his wife Coni Ledesma. I found it immensely satisfying to accomplish such a tour by two top leaders of the National Democratic Front (NDF), the coalition which comprises the political wing of the underground armed struggle in the Philippines, one which has gone on continuously for more than 40 years (and is still going on today).
Luis Jalandoni, who is the NDF's International Representative and Chairman of its Peace Negotiations Panel during the long running and oft-interrupted peace talks with the Philippines government (facilitated by Norway), had previously toured NZ, in 1987, and I was among those who had heard him speak in Christchurch. Although that was the year that I first visited the Philippines, I was not yet involved in the solidarity movement. So, I was delighted to be able to organise his return visit, along with his wife (the tour was collectively organised by PSNA, Auckland Philippines Solidarity and Wellington Kiwi Pinoy).
It's not cheap bringing two people all the way from The Netherlands (where Luis and Coni have lived in exile since the mid 1970s) and we had to fund raise for our biggest ever budget - $10,000 - to enable it to happen. I'm pleased to report that we exceeded that target. There were some unbudgeted costs. For example, the damage and disruption caused by the (2010) Christchurch earthquake meant that, for the first time, the PSNA committee couldn't offer guests private accommodation in our home town.
>We paid to put them up in a hotel for three nights (ironically, Becky and I had only been in their hotel room for a few minutes with them, after arriving from the airport, when a major aftershock rocked the central city high rise building, knocking out the lifts. Luis and Coni were delighted to have experienced an authentic Christchurch earthquake).
Trip To Waihopai Spy Base
Unlike on some previous PSNA speaking tours, I did not accompany them around the country. But Leigh Cookson, Bob Leonard and I did accompany them, by car, to the Waihopai spy base, which they were very interested to see for themselves, and to declare their support for the Domebusters' 2008 dome deflation when asked by the Marlborough Express (they also got to meet two of the three Domebusters, in the North Island).
The Express was one of only two mainstream papers to cover their visit (the Taranaki Daily News being the other) and audience sizes were small, reflecting the fact that the Philippines is well beneath the radar for the NZ media, let alone the public. But we did score a coup when one of our co-organisers got Luis a 20-minute interview with Chris Laidlaw on his highly popular Radio NZ Sunday Morning programme, which has a very big national listenership.
Luis and Coni visited Christchurch, Blenheim, Wellington, New Plymouth, Parihaka (a place which had made such a big impression on Luis in 1987), Hamilton, Whangarei and Auckland. They got to meet several politicians, including Green MP, Keith Locke* who, in his previous role as Philippines Solidarity's National Coordinator, had organised Luis' 1987 tour and accompanied him on it. *My obituary of Keith is in Watchdog 167, December 2024.
This being New Zealand I got them an impromptu audience with the previous Mayor of Christchurch when I was greeted by Garry Moore in the middle of a central city pedestrian crossing whilst walking them back to their hotel. They had a most entertaining footpath chat with Garry for several minutes after getting over their surprise that this seemingly anonymous bearded fellow walking the streets alone had been the Mayor of the country's second biggest city for nine years.
They were wonderful company and they not only found their NZ visit extremely worthwhile, but also highly enjoyable. After leaving NZ, Luis e-mailed me to thank PSNA "for the very well-prepared tour we had of Aotearoa. We consider it a very successful tour with the development of further solidarity between the people of Aotearoa and the Filipino people, with concrete proposals and ideas of developing very important solidarity".
"Terrorists"
It was particularly satisfying for me, because after more than a year of preparation it suddenly looked like it wouldn't happen when, just a fortnight before their arrival, the Government added the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army (two of the constituent groups of the National Democratic Front) to NZ's list of international terrorist organisations - years after the various other Western countries had followed the US in doing so. The NDF is not, and never has been, on the "terrorism" list in any country, including NZ. But we wouldn't know until they arrived at Auckland Airport whether they would be let in (as Dutch passport holders they didn't need to apply for NZ visas).
We arranged to have both a lawyer and an MP on standby in case they were needed. As it happened, they had no hassles with Immigration but Customs spent so long searching their bags that they missed their flight to Christchurch (fortunately they caught the next one, at no extra cost). An Australian tour had been hastily arranged to follow their NZ one and they needed visas for that.
The Aussies immediately issued one for Coni but sat on Luis' application for three weeks, while intense lobbying went on to grant him entry (the Attorney General was being advised by the Director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation), finally succeeding after he'd been in NZ for more than a week and not knowing whether his next destination would be Sydney or Hong Kong.
Ironically, when they did fly to Sydney, they were just waved through by both Immigration and Customs. A least likely pair of "terrorists" is harder to imagine (they were both in the 70s; in their previous life, before they joined the revolution, he was a priest and she was a nun, with 25 years in the clergy between them). They were a pleasure to be with, and it was one of the most satisfying speaking tours that I've coordinated.
BRIAN TURNER
Brian Turner, who died in February 2025, aged 80, was a nationally famous poet, writer, commentator, cyclist and environmentalist (he fought hard to preserve his beloved Central Otago as a pristine environment). He also got the Kiwi seal of approval because he was good at sport - he had represented New Zealand at hockey (he came from a family of sporting aristocracy. Brother Glenn was a world-famous cricketer and leading figure in NZ cricket; brother Greg is a globally known professional golfer). Brian was also a CAFCA member for a decade, from 2006 -2016. He always included a donation with his sub.
I never met him but well remember one interaction with him. In those days we had two Brian Turners as members (the other Brian, a former CAFCA Committee member is still very much alive and kicking). The other Brian did a stint as national President of the Methodist Church. I sent a congratulatory message. You guessed it - back came the reply from this Brian Turner, saying that he'd never been president of anything.
Poetry
Because he was a major public figure, his death attracted numerous obituaries. Rather than me rehashing them, I'll simply refer you to one of the better ones, by Claire Mabey in the Spinoff (7/2/25), which also gives you some of his poetry. I must confess that I've never read any of Brian's poems. I checked online and here's three which give a clear outline of what he thought about what humans, particularly New Zealand ones, are doing to Nature and our country (from "Selected Poems", 2018):
If the sky knew half
of what we're doing
down here
It would be stricken,
inconsolable,
and we would have
Nothing but rain
New Zealanders, a Definition
Born here, buggered it up
And this one, from the 1990s, makes his political views clear:
Euphemistically
I saw branches off the hedge
and stack them neatly on the path.
The work looks more acceptable
this way, otherwise
the bits lie about like limbs
severed on a battlefield.
Carnage, too, is acceptable
when it's tidy, precise,
like the Gulf War's
Vertical Insertions
in Target Rich Areas.
Wherever, whenever, for reasons
unknown to unknowns
in essence this is what's believed.
CAFCA & The Turner Family
Actually, CAFCA has had a productive working relationship with the Turner family as a whole. Brian's sister-in-law, Sukhi Turner, was Mayor of Dunedin from 1995 until 2004 and during her time in office she was one of the highest profile judges that we ever had for the former annual Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation in Aotearoa/New Zealand. When we first asked her, we had no expectation of her agreeing to do it. To our surprise she said "yes", she did it for several years and she became the face of the Roger Award, giving as good as she got when subjected to enormous political and media criticism for her association with it.
Not only that, we got a Turner family double act. One year, Sukhi's husband, the world-famous cricketer and cricket official Glenn Turner, joined her as a judge. This was too much for the Otago Daily Times, which rang me up to ask: "We expect this sort of thing from Sukhi but what is Glenn doing getting involved with people like you?" It just wasn't cricket, apparently. So, rest in peace, Brian, and thank you to the Turner family.
Watchdog - 169 August 2025
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