Posts by Joe Wylie
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Unfortunately, "values" are a vague proxy for statements of what people are actually trying to achieve.
I'd suggest that any 'values' which Labour or National claim to stand for are deliberately ambiguous. The traditional idea of joining a political party in order to make a difference has been superseded by the professionalisation of politics. The mindset exemplified by Tony Blair despises political amateurs, e.g. activists and demonstrators, and would ultimately extend political representation only to party members.
It was Brash's supine acquiesence to the the McCully-inspired 'mainstream' hogwash - something he plainly couldn't have believed but was was wiilling to compromise himself by endorsing - that killed any remaining respect I might have held for him.
Key appears to realise that such phoney stated 'values' offer no real political advantage. John Howard was elected in 1996 without revealing anything substantial about his intentions. In his first two terms, when dissident views were aired by MPs from his own party, he would claim that the Australian Liberal Party was a 'broad church', with room for diverse opinions. Behind the scenes he successfully worked to disendorse all who disagreed with his narrow line.
Whether Key intends in government to preside over a 'broad church' which encompasses both Katherine Rich and Murray McCully remains to be seen.
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. . . in general they were more trusting of politicians than they are now. They were more likely to believe parties stood for certain values.
I remember the '87 election TV coverage - the largely Pasifika crowd at Labour's Mangere HQ cheering the result in Remuera as it recorded its highest-ever Labour vote.
When I ask this question of the different shades of partisan I come across, often they say it's the "core values" or "core principles".
Seems that those who can mouth that kind of fundamentalist nonsense with a straight face are the only ones left who join political parties.
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Hakas and shaving pubic hair. OK then.
Once upon a time haka parties were a feature of graduation/capping celebrations at most NZ Unis. Students, mostly engineers and science/footy types, would dress up in grass skirts, silly hats (top hats were all the go), and fake facial tatts. Then they'd sally forth to wreak drunken mayhem in the socially-approved manner of the times.
As a teenager in 1968 I was present at a meeting in the Student Union at Canterbury where the leader of that year's haka party was publicly challenged - by a bloke - to deny a story that he and his cohorts had forcibly shaved a woman's pubic hair and later posted it to her in an envelope. He refused to answer, but from his smirk it was plain that he was pretty happy for others to think he had.
In the early 80s the Auckland Uni engineers were preparing to set forth in their grass skirts when they received an unexpected visit from some real Maori, who subjected them to a short sharp consciousness-raising session that put an abrupt end to the tradition. As Jackie has noted, it was an interesting transitional time.
About Rex Fairburn - a reading of Jock Phillips' excellent
A Man's Country? from 1987 provides evidence that Fairburn was not just a product of his times - he was a sadly proactive and virulent misogynist. Great writer, marvellous wit, but not someone I'd have wanted to know. -
Do either of them really have the substance for the job?
Willy & John would make excellent mayors of Invercargill.
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. . . the Harold Holt Public Swimming Poo . . .
Harold "swam to Russia" Holt - what a rich heritage of laughs he bequeathed the nation with the special manner of his passing.
One of the few fun things about riding the Sydney trains was the occasional interesting juxtaposition of the front and back pages of the tabloids as they were being read by other passengers. The absolute classic was supposed to be a Daily Mirror from the late 60s, where the front page headline was Search for PM's Body Continues. On the adjoining back sports section was a piece on the boxer Rocky Gattelari - I'm Not Washed Up Yet. -
. . . the man is a scumbag.
Downer's the scion of an old Liberal political family. In his youth he was patted on the head by Menzies, a form of symbolic anointing which gives him Holy Idiot status in Howard's Ming-worshipping world view.
Such figures are not limited to the right of Australian politics. Kim Beazley, despite spending decades proving his incompetence, was cut vastly more slack than he deserved on account of his family history.
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. . . the vicarious enjoyment we had through her, but she was just human, right?
I remember a very pregnant Jane Turner on Fast Forward playing a bikini-clad Diana besieged by paparazzi. When asked when the baby was due she denied being pregnant and insisted that she just had a 'gas problem'.
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Diana, aged 11, with possibly the best friend she ever had:
http://www.oginet.com/Cavies/abcdd.jpg -
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When I was at primary school 'Arab' was an abstract concept involving deserts & camels. 'Jew' was a derogatory term for someone who kept wanting a bit of your lunch. 'Chinese' was very exotic, and referred to sweet & sour wontons and chop suey.
Got me thinking about Ruth Park's autobiography of her early years, A Fence Around the Cuckoo. In depression-era Te Kuiti the universal pejorative, informed by World War 1 propaganda, was 'Hun'.
On account of his perceived overcharging, the local Chinese fruiterer was known as Ah Hun.