Posts by Tom Semmens
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I have to go now and engage with the real world.
I'm sorry that I picked on you Giovanni, I set you up to make a point.
Now you know how a lot of six generation white New Zealanders feel when they get told they are not "Tangata Whenua". -
Thank you Kyle.
When did you arrive here again? Are you sure you are qualified to take part in a discussion between real New Zealanders?
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I'm now the sixth generation on my father's side to call NZ home,
I find this interesting. For some reason, elite opinion in this country is in denial of the existance or legitimacy of popular Pakeha nationalism and uncomfortable even with the idea of a distinct Kiwi identity. It is as if they think being proud of your country is immediately followed by an invasion of Poland.
But I am of the view that something is happening in this country, I think a major generational cleving is occuring between the baby boomers/Gen X on one the one hand and those who have been born and grown up with the consequences of the sequeance of events that began with British entry into the EEC, and includes the Maori renaissance and Rogernomics.
These fifth, sixth and seventh generation Pakeha New Zealanders have been exposed to Maori culture, are not afraid of it and no longer view Maori through their parents lens of settler white guilt. They are much less inclined to be little Englanders and if they look anywhere they look to Australia for ideas, a country which has an agressively nationalistic agenda. They've absorbed aspects of Maori culture and used it bolster a distinct Pakeha nationalist identity. They are impatient with and insulted by the idea they somehow have a lesser connection with these islands than the likes of the Harawira clan.
They are the coming generation.
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Everybody seems to forget that Labour chose to participate in the invasion of Afghanistan knowing it was resulting in civil war within the Alliance.
After the September 11 attacks on the United States, planned and orchestrated from within the failed Afghan state, an invasion of that place to root out Osama Bin Laden's global reach and kill his followers was legal, just and right. As such it was supported by the vast majority of New Zealanders. Most people wished to express their support for our United States ally in it's actions against the criminals who planned the 9/11 attacks.
Don't blame Labour because the Alliance was full of romantic "Hanoi Jane" wannabes, relics from another era. The Alliance imploded not because of the actions of the government of the day, but because it hadn't moved on from a hokey, foolish, thirty year old "One, two, three, four we don't want your Asian war" view of international relations. -
The report is availiable on the RNZ site - this morning's Waatea news (12 November 2009) at 8:48am is where I heard it, and the rebuttal from the now 84 year old Dick Scott.
We are fortunate that Mr. Scott was able to interview surviving participants and was able to present first hand accounts. The Wikipedia entry on Parihaka is also actually very good. None of the primary sources support Mrs Hawawira's version of events, which as I say were bad enough without having to invent atrocity stories.
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This morning on Morning Report Titewhai Harawira claimed that it was ironic that the whole email scandal occured on November 5th, the anniversary of the destruction of Te Whiti's Parihaka settlement. She claimed - on National Radio - that Colonial troops raped the women, cut of their breasts and turned them into tobacco pouches, and murdered their children and men.
Now, on the Maori News the historian Dick Scott (who wrote the 1975 book "Ask That Mountain: The Story of Parihaka" that made Te Whiti's story popular) said that there may have been some rapes, but her wild atrocity stories have no basis in fact.
So there you have it. What happened to Maori at Parihaka was a shameful incident in our countries history. A sane person would acknowledge that without need for embellishment.
Hone Harawira has been raised by a women who believes in wild "babies on bayonets" type fairy stories of atrocities, and leaves no opportunity untaken to brazenly spread her lies. No wonder he hate white people.
God knows how many minds she has poisoned over the years with her fanciful version of history.
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You know, there is one thing communism is good for, if you look at the state of Tsarist Russia or pre-communist China. And that is taking hopelessly corrupt, ossified and pitifully poor countries and turning them into economic powerhouses within two generations.
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Oh as for Hone Hawawira - I think Key might be right, the public has made it's judgement on the man. He is politically dead, no one will take him seriously again.
From now on he will be treated the way you treat a taxi driver offering an unsolicited opinion. With a faint sense of embarassment and a glance at your watch.
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I find the the release of the recording of Gordon Brown's phone conversation an appalling breach of trust.
Unfortunately, the message politicians of all stripes will take from it will be that they simply shouldn't bother trying to have unscripted encounters with the public.
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This is Hadyn's blog so he can write about what he likes, but I find his constant reporting of this really rather minor and amateur roller darby stuff about as interesting as he would find me writing up my indoor netball team every week or two.
i.e. Not very.