Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: White in Brighton

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  • Stephen Judd,

    In Chch over the weekend. Admired the trout and eels in the Avon. Was yet again unable to avoid Scorpio books or leave without purchasing. Had momentary disorientation in Northlands mall where I thought I was in St Lukes but there were too many white people.

    Based on PAS representation, and personal experience, I'd have no problem moving there, if I weren't so embedded here. Just don't give the night patrol my address, I'd like to keep my kosher letterbox unsullied.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Scorpio has vintage hardcore porn for sale, it made me blush & a little quezzey - just next to the Architecture section Emma ;)

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    The "white way":

    Eerily reminiscent of Vyvan on the Young Ones.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    Eerily reminiscent of Vyvan on the Young Ones.

    Roflnui.

    Interestingly enough, the car right outside is a Mitsubishi Sigma. If these wackos practised what they preached, shouldn't it be a Ford/Holden/BLMC?

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Quite. All you'd have to do to discredit the scared racist thugs of the white power brigade is broadcast what their sad lives actually look like. Fortunately most people seem to see that already.

    I'm more worried about the discrepancy between levels of actual support and publicity of Act's whacko beliefs. Nice to see Rodders being reeled back in a bit.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Oh, hang on.

    Hide opens door to privatised water deals

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Dinah Dunavan,

    Perfect way to fund a stadium. Privatise water and then flog it off.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Privatising of Water leads to deprivation.
    The rich pay less and have better serives and the poor pay more for less.
    Or free if untreated and life threatening.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    To follow on from self deluded fools.

    Garth George has done a number on Pope Brian.

    What scares me is the direct oath to him and the excuse to act to offend others in defense of Brian. That's a licence to kill.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10605956&pnum=0

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • B Jones,

    That just makes me think of the Light of Day Institute.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    I had a Sunday lunch with a girlfriends sisters family who were this sincere about the evils of Witches.

    I'm sure there's a Pastor somewhere kicking himself he didn't take up the vampire crusade before HBO.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    Isn't there some kid of law about asking your sons to "feel your flow"?

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Isn't there some kid of law about asking your sons to "feel your flow"?

    Oh good, it's not just me reading that and wondering how anybody could write it with a straight face.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    No, it's not. From my Facebook feed this morning:

    Have you committed to Brian Tamaki? Let us know - email gaynz@woosh.co.nz

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    feel your flow

    Easy to do when you're willing to

    submit to God's chosen man

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    He formed a dub-influenced group as soon as he left the Pistols.

    And more than that. He convinced Branson, at some expense, to go with him to Jamaica as the Pistols ended, to sign acts for the once mighty Virgin Front Line label, which at one time was arguably, partially because of the Sex Pistol, the most interesting Reggae label outside the isle. It introduced Gregory Isaacs, Johnny Clarke, The Mighty Diamonds, U-Roy, I-Roy, Keith Hudson, Culture, Gladiators and so much more to a wider audience.

    I remember sitting in Taste Records in 1979 unpacking all those wondrous, post Lydon Front Line imports (with a bunch of equally widemouthed Auckland punks looking on). It's still a moment (or rather, a week or two as we immersed ourselves in this hitherto absolutely unobtainable treasure) that causes a shiver.

    The weird thing is, I can recall a time when it was Auckland, not Christchurch, that had the skinhead types.

    The irony in Auckland was that the original Skinhead movement was overwhelmingly Maori. And thus very much not, for all their other faults, racist. (With one exception, a very loud moron called Rocky, quite dark skinned, who used to parade onto stages chanting 'kill all blacks"). It evolved otherwise later, but most of those first generation skins had moved on.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    (With one exception, a very loud moron called Rocky, quite dark skinned, who used to parade onto stages chanting 'kill all blacks").

    Oh god... shades of Dave Chappelle's black, blind Ku Klux Klan grand wizard...

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    I concur. I think it was about 1984 or some time after 1981 the NF made their inroads into the Christchurch Skinz.

    But still in the 90s I saw Maori Skinz in Christchurch. The thing is they were lost kids in or around their teens.

    Punks used the swastika alot (ironic or not) but quite the divide existed between them and Skinz. I know a few Executives who were the middle class copy - the Boot Boy.

    When you've in your 20s/30s/40s and still playing that game it's a bit scary.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    Sigh.

    Sometimes I feel that Kyle Chapman - whose followers you can count on one hand - exists essentially as an excuse for a bit of bully-boy Christchurch bashing. Because nobody would even know these guys existed if it wasn't for the media's tendency to promote anything that helps solidify the image of Christchurch as a racist place.

    It's rich of Wellingtonians and Aucklanders to label Christchurch as having great racial and class tension compared to those cities. A few idiots walking around an outer suburb in black jerseys is laughable and no great threat to racial harmony. I've seen plenty of seedy, poor, uneducated and angry white guys in the outer areas of Auckland and Wellington. Note I say "outer" areas.

    Christchurch city, unlike Auckland and Wellington, is made up of a genuine mix of people from all sorts of backgrounds, poor, wealthy and everything in between. In contrast, Auckland City and Central Wellington are by-in-large middle-class only zones: all the "white trash," as some of the posters call them - a disgusting and degrading term - and the poor, uneducated and often disenfranchised and angry people of other ethnic backgounds, live out of sight and out of mind, outside of Auckland city, CEntral Welligton - in Upper Hutt, or in Porirua, or South Auckland.

    As for public spaces: No other city in the country has a public space equal to the botanic gardens. And they are well used by everyone.

    As for the City Council in the 1980s refusing to give part of Hagley Park to Maori because it was "too close to the expensive suburbs" (someone wrote above) -- what a load of tosh! The Christchurch City Council has been consistently the most left wing council in the country, compared to the corporate-minded Auckland and Wellington City Councils.

    In regard to Maori -- treaty negotiations and subsequent partnerships between Ngai Tahu and the Council and local business leaders have been a great deal more successful than they have in other areas of the country. Ngai Tahu is seen as the model for other tribes to emulate.

    To balance my rebuttal: Christchurch does have more than its share of problems. There's a terrible problem with public drunkenness; of angry bored and out of control young - by in large poor - men driving missiles around the central city; a high murder rate, etc. etc. Sadly, New Brighton has become a less-than-perfect example of some of the city's failures. There has been attempts to do something about it but none of them have worked very well. All we can keep doing, I suppose, is to keep trying to address the underlying causes of poverty and alienation politically, and backing those efforts up with community driven projects and initiatives....

    Rather than sitting back in an inner-city cafe for the well healed, several miles away by motorway from where we have forced by high rentals out own poor out of sight - whether that be Porirua or South Auckland - and sneering about more disadvantaged and less cultured people down South, or in the Hutt, in between visits to art galleries which may have a great emphasis on cultural diversity but only engage with real class and social issues on a theoretical level. Consider the disgusting irony of champagne-fueled art openings for the liberal and conscientious of the Roseneath dress circle.

    Hopefully down here in Christchurch we can find ways to deal with some of the deepening poverty and social ills we have been suffering of late. I am confident we can. After all, this is the home of the labour union movement and the red centre of the country - if you look at historical voting patterns - so I have some hope we can sort things out.

    In the meantime why not address some of the underlying causes of social problems rather than expressing a dismissive brand of snobbery towards people less educated and urbane than you.

    Finally Kyle Chapman is a dickhead, that's never been disputed. Regarding his most recent comments about"non-white" graffiti: I'd love to show him some of the ancient graffiti in Rome and Pompey.

    Kyle is an ignoramus, with no support in the community, very few followers and no serious threat to racial harmony. Please, stop using him serve ofa metaphor of the perverse Christchurchland of your imaginations and start recognizing him for what he is: more a convenient buffoon that enables wealthy urban elites to express their snobbery and comfortable self-satisfaction, than a foil to express and feel righteous superiority of morals in comparison to people further South, and often a lot poorer and less educated, than you.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Couple of things: you do realise that Emma lives in Christchurch, right? I'd also be moderately careful about who you're calling wealthy urbane elite.

    Secondly, this

    Wellington and Central Wellington are by-in-large middle-class only zones: all the "white trash," and the poor, uneducated and often disenfranchised and angry people live out of sight and out of mind,

    happens not to be true. By a long shot.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    Giovanni - let me just say quickly in response to you (and to Emma!) that I am not addressing Emma, her article and its tone, but some of the cliqued comments about Christchurch in response to it.

    But not by a long shot?

    Come on, now. Central Wellington is the wealthiest constituency in the country. Virtually everyone is middle-class, or a student.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Come on, now. Central Wellington is the wealthiest constituency in the country. Virtually everyone is middle-class, or a student.

    You wrote Wellington and central Wellington. I live halfway down Adelaide road, which is not exactly the Hutt. Also, Newtown, Lyall Bay... come on.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    Yeah, I know - then I changed it to Auckland City and central Wellington. That's what I meant to write, but as you can probably tell, I wrote the above post quite quickly.

    Lyall Bay! It's hardly Porirua, is it? As for Newtown, it seems to me to be increasingly, as Aro gentrifies, the stomping ground of bohemian students and artists who may be poor but who by in large come from middle-class backgrounds. Whereas Christchurch has very poor areas adjacent to the city. You have to take to the motorway in Auckland and Wellington to witness the same level of economic deprivation. Therefore my comment about poverty, and related social problems, being out of sight and out of mind for Wellingtonians. In Christchurch it is much more in your face.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    No other city in the country has a public space equal to the botanic gardens.

    Beg to differ on this. While the Christchurch b. gardens may, as a recent Sri Lankan migrant put it, resemble something from a beautiful dream, so does the Auckland Domain. Apart from that, very much enjoyed your post.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Jogging Solo,

    Thanks Joe. And the Auckland Domain is lovely.... I may have gone a little overboard in order to make a point.

    Since Oct 2009 • 23 posts Report Reply

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