Hard News: Transmogrithingy
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AFAIC, Hone should be a damn sight more concerned about the brown necks in his own party - starting with the more unhinged half of the leadership.
And Banks vs. Hubbard. Well, I guess a campaign season that's going to resemble nothing more than Dumb and Dumber, Part Deux should have some entertainment value. I can only hope this time round, the Herald's election coverage is going to be a little more extensive than Brian Rudman and whatever hobby horse he's riding at the time.
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BTW, I wonder what the reaction would be if some backwoods Australian MP stood up on his hind legs and opined that Helen Clark was a racist bitch in thrall to the politically correct dykeocracy?
Whatever I think of her and her government, I must admit my immediate reaction would be to suggest he stick to something more closely related to the job he was elected to do. Failing that, it's never too early to buy your sister a Mother's Day present.
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A blog about Auckland City council politics? Wow , I predict another 10+ pages of comments to come ....
So Banks ... does have an opening via the indifferent performance - and, in some cases, obsession with pet issues - of the current council.
Yeah, I was another of the anyone-but-Banks brigade last election; and yet sorely disappointed with the outcome. But this time round I realise there is no hope until Greater Auckland has one Council (to Rule Them All!)
Meanwhile, he was on the radio this morning accusing Hone Harawira of belonging to a "racist" organisation: ie, the Maori Party. Sigh …
John Tamihere was levelling exactly the same accusation on Radio Live this afternoon.
Speaking of which, the Australian federal government has thought the better of its poorly conceived announcement that it would be conducting forced medical checks on all aboriginal children in targeted communities.
And why not, now that they've got 'terrorist doctors on Aussie soil' to win the next election with?
The portion from Mayoral Drive to Wellesley Street is complete and looking really nice. I'm willing to put up with those awful orange barriers for a bit longer if nice wide footpaths are the end result They don't need to be "world class", just nice and wide.
Aw, c'mon. Wider footpaths will just make Queen Street look emptier! Q St really is a dog (as anyone who's been overseas will confirm), and I doubt this prettification will work. As for those orange barriers - they're just part of a cunning plan by bureaucrats to soften us up for cutting Q St down to one lane of vehicle traffic. (NB: anyone opposing/supporting the councils plan to run permanent busways thru Q St have only 10 days left to object/support)
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Yes it would be but the Wild/Anderson report details all sexual abuse no matter the ethnicity of the offender . . .
Which would be fine if Howard had acted according to the report's recommendations. Instead he's attacked the problem as if it's a purely aboriginal issue, inferring that they're the authors of their own misfortune. Refugees throw their kids overboard, aboriginals abuse their kids.
If white abusers had been singled out while blacks had been largely ignored it'd be plainly perceived as racist.
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WH,
I know that this is not really on topic, but Calvin and Hobbes may well be the best mass market comic strip ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Cardboard_boxes
http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm
http://calvinandhobbes.awardspace.com/ -
Thanks Weston - that second link is great.
Watterson's misfortune seems to be that his strip came along after the dawn of dumb.
As an example, here's a Walt Kelly page from 1968 (Kelly's Pogo is one of the three strips, along with Peanuts & Krazy Kat, that Watterson names as his greatest influences):http://www.animationarchive.org/pics/pogo05-big.jpg
Once upon a time you could run a passing mention of Charlemagne in a Sunday page and assume people would know what you were on about.
Now we have *&$#@* Dilbert, FFS. -
While John Banks can use transmogrification in a sentence, it'll take a bit more than that to convince people he still isn't a double polaroid (Thank Smeg).
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Instead he's attacked the problem as if it's a purely aboriginal issue, inferring that they're the authors of their own misfortune.
Maybe. I can't see into his mind. But the study that he is responding to is as far as I can tell free of any racist agenda.
I see Howard's response as heavy handed but I am really not inclined to write off what he is doing as racism.
Clare Martin, the NT politician who commissioned the study, is against the leasing of problem community land and of getting rid of travel permits but is otherwise prepared to work with Howard.
The controversy over Howard's approach appears to revolve around the 5 year lease of community land and the travel permits. che links to allegations that the former are just an excuse for land grabs and there are some who feel that doing away with the travel permits will open up aborigine communities to further abuse from white travelers ("back-packers" in fact).
I've read the stuff that che has linked to and remain unconvinced. Howard's measures may not work but they are a very strange way of land-grabbing. What does the Federal govt gain (that white Oz does not already have) from acquiring 5 year leases on a minuscule amount of the Australian outback that contains some of the most destitute communities in the country? If this was Vaucluse there might be some sort of case. Maybe it's some very clever way of getting a hold of even more mineral resources but I haven't seen any evidence.
This does look like a rethink of the laws concerning aboriginal land ownership and maybe that's an issue of concern. But I wonder if the present land ownership arrangements benefit more than a privileged few.
As for the permits for entering Aboriginal areas, if they are so beneficial why are things so bad?
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Danyl
Hone & the Maori party talk on racism is from the expert position of experience & they're not radical, they're really quite reasonable.
I differ on a few issues but not too much.
Let's not be destracted by smoke screens - this is about mineral rights. If some kids are helped in the process (a big if) it was purely coincedental.
Hone is the 'Big Man' any number of scrambling backbenchers wish they could be.
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I want Crowe to win.
Roads would be safer - every light would be red & no speeding thanks to all the curb crawling.
I wonder if the Mayoral chains would have matching hand-cuffs & a whip? hmm
I bet he would put in more CCTVs and have strict etiquette.
They say you get the democracy you deserve... will AKL get f..ked? -
Which would be fine if Howard had acted according to the report's recommendations. Instead he's attacked the problem as if it's a purely aboriginal issue, inferring that they're the authors of their own misfortune. Refugees throw their kids overboard, aboriginals abuse their kids.
Howard may be a racist twat - personally, I think it's more likely that, like Winston Peters, he is happy to appeal to racist twats for votes - but this does not somehow (as some people here seem to be suggesting) mean that there aren't some pretty serious problems that need to be tackled. And it seems like the people keenest to kiss Harawira's arse have the least to say about concrete ways of tackling those problems.
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Hone & the Maori party talk on racism is from the expert position of experience & they're not radical, they're really quite reasonable.
Michael: Sorry, but 'racist' is exactly what I'd called the anti-immigrant bullshit brown neckery I've heard flow from the Maori Party - especially when there's no MSM reporters around.
And if the following appeared (with a few small tweaks) under the name of John Key, rather than Hone Harawira, I think 'racist' would be the mildest response.
__Do you think that current immigration policies are aimed at stopping the "browning" of New Zealand?__
Anonymous, via emailA couple of years ago, statisticians predicted a 'browning' of Aotearoa by 2025; saying that by then we’d be the largest Polynesian centre in the world. And then, hello, in the last two years, all of a sudden the net number of migrants from the UK goes up by 20,000. Government will tell you it’s not about race, it’s about skills. Brownies will say "yeah right."
I guess the Maori Party has no problems with that, because the whole column is archived on their website. Then again, when you've got Winston Peters and Kyle Chapman as a benchmark, then I guess that is the reasonable face of 'we're being swamped in our own country' immigration rhetoric.
I welcome the long-promised top to bottom review of the Immigration Act that's apparently going before the House later this year. Urgently needed and long overdue. But all I'll say is God help us all if the Maori Party and Winston First get their grubby little fangs into it.
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What problem is that?
Minerals on Aboriginal land?
Let's not play with statistics here.
The biggest child abuse in OZ is urban and white.Pumping the cost of a military occupation into rehabilitating the communities he suddenly gives a dam about is a good start.
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Craig
Immigration is that wee difference I have with the Maori Party - well spotted.Kyle Chapman got 5th in the last Christchurch Mayoral race and is running again - anyone wanna bet he gets on council?
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If this was Vaucluse there might be some sort of case.
Vaucluse was sorted out around 200 years ago.
It's a big continent, these things take time. -
The Australian seems to be about the best media source on this issue at the moment. It currently has two quite good stories.
Aboriginal coalition's alternative plan
They have concerns about the 5 year leases and permits but it seems more to do with the pragmatics of whether these measures would make things better or worse.
Healing hands bridge a cultural divide
There are some benefits at least.
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I wonder what the reaction would be if some backwoods Australian MP stood up on his hind legs and opined that Helen Clark was a racist bitch in thrall to the politically correct dykeocracy
I think he/she/it would be perfectly entitled to do that. Or for any politician, anywhere, to opine that Robert Mugabe, Hu Jintao or Nicholas Sarkozy are dorks of the first, second and third orders, respectively.
Of course there are considerations if one is a government minister and obliged to creep to foreign despots so that we remain allowed to buy their cheap flat-screen tellys. Otherwise I don't believe the Pacific should act as a moat across which criticism may not pass.
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neil,
man, i'm so past angry when it comes to howard it alarms me..
the next thing to read after that crikey article is this article in the sydney morning herald.
you'll note that howard is accused of holding the removal of the permit system as an objective in this sphere since the late 1990s.
look. i'm on my own time here, and i'm going to have to say that harawira is right. howard is a stinking racist. there's a book by an academic called andrew markus that very clearly outlines how the wee man has systematically used racism to maintain his government in power.
furthermore, he has worked to undermine aboriginal rights ever since the death of two great men, charles perkins and h.c. "nugget" coombs. both of these men where instrumental in keeping aboriginal self-determination alive from the 1970s to the early noughties.
the permit system is in effect the last barrier to the complete dissolution of aboriginal self-government. the native title act, and with it the right of aboriginal people to negotiate with mining companies has been watered down. the wik amendment to the same act ensured that native title was easily extinguishable by the states. atsic was gutted and closed down after the loss of perkins and coombs.
howard has no real interest in child abuse or aboriginal people. this is a cynical manipulation.
so sure, debate me. argue that "at least something is being done". but i can guarantee that come six months after the next election? nothing will be done. nothing at all. the money will be "reprioritised, and all these blackfullas will be abandoned out in the styx again. with even less to show for it that when howard "declared war" on abuse.
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Otherwise I don't believe the Pacific should act as a moat across which criticism may not pass.
Certainly not, but I sure hope the traffic goes both ways -- because I don't think New Zealand has a great history of welcoming megaphone diplomacy from Canberra. Or Washington. Or Westminster.
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And, Che, I'm feeling remarkably good about being 'beyond angry' that Harawira has the gall to call anyone a 'racist bastard' - and is getting applauded by folks who should know a little better - when he can on the race-baiting immigrant bash without comment.
Then again, I guess sickly white pseudo-liberals have to walk a very delicate tightrope when the red neck is brown and in our own backyard. And it's kind of sad that when the likes of Harawira and Turia have someone like Pita Sharples - who I genuinely respect, and has the charm of the devil - willing to do the media wash-and-spin on their behalf.
In the end, Che, the Australian electorate is going to pass judgement on Howard - and I have my doubts the verdict is going to be to his liking - and that's how it should be. I'm more concerned that we should be talking out our own trash - and our very own racist bastards - before affecting any degree of moral or political superiority over anyone else.
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craig, there's no way you're baiting me into discussing hypocrisy in the new zealand parliament.
on that, my opinions are my on.
stating that i agree with harawira about howard is not an affirmation of all his statements. so spare me the wee dig. k thx bai.
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If Hone's comments help keep the spotlight on Howard and this issue for one more day then its been worth it.
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someone like Pita Sharples - who I genuinely respect, and has the charm of the devil - willing to do the media wash-and-spin on their behalf.
I dont think he had an option really. Clearing up the crap dumped by the others in his party seems to be his lot in life.
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I'm more concerned that we should be talking out our own trash - and our very own racist bastards - before affecting any degree of moral or political superiority over anyone else.
Oh Craig, that's bullshit. I don't need standing to deliver criticism. I don't need approval, and I don't need credentials. The only qualification I need is to be right.
I don't believe in any case that Harawira DID assert moral or political superiority. He just said, correctly, that Howard is a racist bastard.
Harawira is not a lovely specimen, but he's right. Perhaps hypocritical, but still right. Being without sin before you cast stones is a fine doctrine for Christianity but a lousy one for politics.
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I don't need standing to deliver criticism
Heh - by the same token, I don't need the validation of anyone else in order to decide what to think of the Rodent. He's already given me plenty of reasons to think he's a grasping, conniving, amoral, ruthlessly pragmatic, and divisive prick.
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