Island Life: Child's play
113 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 Newer→ Last
-
I like calling them Swiss Mercenaries, then I can wish for a maritime Marignano and congratulate myself on my cleverness.
Rich of Observationz: I see the America's cup as an important acquisition for an economy which by dint of distance is always going to be reliant to some extent on event-driven tourism. As a brand it generates huges sums of cash. As an economic nationalist, I want that brand and its cash here. And yes, I know its a brand. But its got thirty four million of my taxpayer dollars behind it. Its got "New Zealand" on it. It would be run here. And Dalton wants to bring back the nationality rule. So it seems far more logical to me to identify with Team New Zealand than it does the way a whole lot of people I know who go into mourning and boo and hiss and behave boorishly when brand Manchester United lose (like, WTF is that all about?)
As a sport, I quite like yacht match racing as a spectacle, to me it has a lot of the tension and slow motion drama of test cricket.
-
It'd be more fun if they armed the yachts. A swivel gun up front and a couple of cannons.
-
Simon
As a foriegn investor I wasn't targeting yourself specifically but foriegn firms are given far too much leeway in NZ already - such as Comalco. Simon I'm not familiar with you're business interests.
Anne
You have as much right as any foriegner to live in NZ - you should also have to jump through the same hoops. -
Anne M: No one says working for foreigners is bad per se.
But lets get real here.The red socks, the huge flags, the advertising campaigns - everyone knows that the America's Cup was sold as Team New Zealand, all of us, against the rest. Nationalism was powerfully and knowing invoked to generate support, remember " America's Cup in now New Zealand's cup?" It's not like they went from Kiwibank to the ANZ.
The defectors were already rich men. They knew the popularity and importance of the cup here. They knew its worth to the N.Z. economy. People in such a situation have a public duty of responsibilty to the New Zealand people, yet they made their decision based totally on selfish reasons. So if they don't like being hissed at and reviled by some their fellow countrymen, then tough luck.
-
Defectors? Traitors? Mercenaries? It seems some have lost all sense of proportion. We are talking about sport here, remember?
-
More fool you Tom if you bought into it. Remember those socks were made in Korea.
The whole thing was a giant con as far as I was concerned, and I still couldn't give a rat's one way or another.
-
"Defectors? Traitors? Mercenaries? It seems some have lost all sense of proportion. We are talking about sport here, remember?"
Yeah, a sport in the most tenuous sense of the word. I'd sooner watch televised darts. It's hardly the game of the people is it? I mean, you're hardly going to see schoolboys packing in lunch time rugby because they'd rather be Dean Barker than Dan Carter.
But on the traitors point, do we slag off Warriors players that go and play for English or Australian clubs? No. The yachtsmen are professionals making a living with whoever wants to pay them the most money, just like any professional footballer, rugby player, basketballer etc does. Team New Zealand are probably the only team to carry such an overt nationalistic association - for the rest of them, it's exactly the same as Formula 1 - a means for rich wankers like Ellison and Bertarelli to spend their dosh. If a Swiss sailor defected to Team NZ, I don't anyone in Switzerland would give a flying fuck
-
Anne
You have as much right as any foriegner to live in NZ - you should also have to jump through the same hoops.I'm an NZ citizen by descent actually.
The yachtsmen are professionals making a living with whoever wants to pay them the most money, just like any professional footballer, rugby player, basketballer etc does.
Indeed. Do we slag off bankers who work for National Bank or Westpac rather than KiwBank or TSB?
-
Oh yes - Thom James, you remind of an anecdote I was going to tell. I took a risk and went to a big fancy dress party at Centro nightclub three years back dressed as a SS Officer, jackboots, riding crop, armband, whole nine yards. I only got one negative comment all night, and to judge by the reaction the ladies still love a uniform. I've never been more popular than when I was a Nazi, which is a bit of a worry now I think about it...
Anyway.
Last year I was in Europe and got an England football shirt for the world cup. I only wore it out once in Auckland, I got abused three times in 15 minutes.
My conclusion? Nazi's are more popular than the three lions in NZ.
-
Do we slag off bankers who work for National Bank or Westpac rather than KiwBank or TSB?
I think some of the Kiwibank advertising is borderline racist - or would be if it didn't involve Aussies.
Anyway, I find economic nationalism obnoxious, particularly in an exporting nation (where would we be without foreigners buying our milk, timber and meat?)
-
What does this mean for Richie our All Black Captain and WestPac spokes model?
-
As a sport, I quite like yacht match racing as a spectacle, to me it has a lot of the tension and slow motion drama of test cricket.
You're exactly right, yachting is as boring as cricket.
There are some, mainly idiots, who see rugby as the be all and end all of this country, but it does need some perspective. Sports is a complex topic that the "everyman" can get into and know to an indepth level. Noam Chomsky talks about how you can go into a bar and ask about politics and get a bunch of blank stares, ask about football and you'll recieve 50 years of exact statistics and commentary.
Hence, when little New Zealand happens to be the best in the world at Rugby, our general population sits up and notices. We may also be a large exporter of agricultural products but no one will quote you the latest export lamb prices (unless they are deeply involved).
-
To accuse NZ sailors who have accepted positions with teams other than Team New Zealand as 'traitors' is to buy into the marketing of Team New Zealand as a national team. Nevermind that it's the only 'national' team entered in the race, nevermind that it's sponsored by Emirates not Air NZ, nevermind that we're only in the race because Bertarelli provided the money to keep our syndicate afloat after we LOST the cup .... no, forget all that because we are nation of sad f#cks who pin our hopes/self-esteem on our international sporting prowess.
That people are even debating whether they are traitors on this site shows just how bad the malaise is. Many years ago, when Michael Fay decided to embark on his quest for the Cup (an ideal opportunity to network with international business people), he employed a very successful PR team to make kiwis believe this was an event of international significance (it's not) and worthy of a national endevour. So subsequently many of you bought the red socks - and clearly haven't taken them off since.
Fools. -
(sigh)
Remember, you brought this on yourself...THEATRE!
-
That may only be your viewpoint I O.
As a lifelong sailor I enjoy the cup cycle and yes if team NZ win I will punch the air a few times. No I don't own any red socks. I agree that folks are sad that diss other kiwis for sailing for other syndicates. In the long run most of those kiwis will be investing in NZ anyway.
The main point is TNZ lost the cup in 2003, if they had have listened to feedback from sailors and boat builders then we would have retained it.
That 82 boat was faster and higher than Alinghi, it just didnt go too good when it broke through the middle. -
It's hardly the game of the people is it?
New Zealand is the one country in the world where that statement is wrong.
Went yacht racing last weekend. Cost, $35 bucks. Hardly a millionaires' budget. Photos - it is as exciting as it looks in those pics.
Hence the interest, hence the passion (however mistaken it may be). -
The whole reason people keep getting confused that it’s a national sport is due to the way Team Emirates NZ is promoted in the media (TV1 and Herald being the worst offenders)
Running a story like this reinforces the myth that it’s a national sport. Some of it, like that story, and TV1 breathlessly imploring people to stay up to “cheer the Kiwis on” are blatant examples; the fact that the Emirates word is never used in TV1 news items or the fact that it was always BMW / Oracle, not Chris Dickson’s BMW / Oracle are less subtle.
-
I meant more subtle.
-
Don
Yachting on the weekend by definition puts you on the rich side of the divide.
A/ You have a weekend and not a 2nd or 3rd job with which you buy that luxury good electricity.
B/You have $35 to waste on playing at a little Rum Sodomy & the Lash.So lets not pretend yachting NZ is scouring Sth AKL for new yachties as part of the Kiwi egalitarian dream that never existed.
-
Anne M said
"I'm an NZ citizen by descent actually."
This seems more of an accident of birth by which I wouldn't want to penalise you for. It is your pref to live 10yrs abroad that interests me. Be free to move where you want to be, but like any other foreign resident apply under the rules, by the sounds of it you have a few points - well done. -
Michael: Under international law everyone has a right to citizenship of a country - you can't go around stripping citizenship unless other countries are going to come to the party and give this people new citizenship.
In any case, given that NZ governments for the last 30 years have actively pursued the making of NZ as a branch office of global economy rather than a distinct national economy in the global economy I struggle to blame NZers who choose to move to whereever head office is.
-
America Cup & Team NZ my opinion:
Straight after Team NZ defended the Cup.
There was no doubt Sir Peter Blake was going.
There was no doubt Coutts & Butterworth were to take over.
There is no doubt that with any handover there was going to be issues to work through.
What ever happened they were going be the men in charge of our defense. They were quite aware of this.
They were already wealthy men and would not have wanted for anything in their lives. They would have been quite rightfully sponsored / supported wherever they went for obtaining something that benefitted NZ in so many ways.
They were both middle class boys lucky enough to be brought up in a country where they had free access to water and non-profit clubs. They were given plenty and asked for nothing in return.
I wonder If the six Ex-Team NZ members that left to Alingi had there time again they would do the same.
Some believe what they did was fine. I don’t -
Listen, why don't we get a mob together and lynch Ralph Norris. He jumped ship from Air NZ to join Australia's Commonwealth Bank:
"Ralph Norris will commence as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Bank from close of business on 22 September 2005. Ralph joins us from Air New Zealand Limited where he was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer from February 2002 to August 2005. He has twice been honoured with New Zealand’s Executive of the Year – in 1997 while at ASB Bank and in 2004 while at Air New Zealand. "Seriously, what a traitorous bastard. He should be stripped of those honours at the very least. I've a good mind to fly to Sydney and heckle his offices.
-
Michael. I would imagine Neil Finn, has drawn pulled more foreign bucks back into New Zealand than a goodly percentage of the population of Auckland city combined but under your rule, since he was resident abroad for a decade and a half, he should be summarily stripped of his citizenship. So also would Sir Keith Park, who, having played his part in saving the UK in 1940, was away for decades, returning to NZ for his last years. We should've made the bastard stay in Essex! Perhaps we should also strip Dame Kiri and, posthumously, Ernest Rutherford and Katherine Mansfield. Sam Neil lived abroad for many years..he has a damn cheek coming back, no?
And I'm not a "foreign investor", like Ann, I'm born and will die a New Zealander, but I happen find my life draws me elsewhere from time to time.
This whole thread has taken a turn towards the ludicrous
-
Nobody needs to be lynched.
I don't think Ralph subotaged either of these organisations before he left. He never left with the managment team with him. He never left with a chip on his shoulder or bit the hand that had fed him.
By all accounts he left on good terms.
Right or wrong if you destroy a relationship (which Coutts & Butterworth did) that had been good to you most people will view you in a different light.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.