Island Life: Oliver's Army
77 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 Newer→ Last
-
DeepRed - Laws pro-Apartheid thesis, I assume it was an undergrad write up for the student mag?
Any copies/links? -
Don't recall anything about a thesis, but I do recall Laws organised a pro-tour group - called FART - on campus.
As for him leading the charge in Zimbabwe etc... the image which popped into my head was of Laws as Flashman
-
This was the exact same Michael Laws who, during the 1981 Tour, wrote a university thesis justifying the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Law's left a bit of a legacy during his time at Otago. I've seen copies of publications he was allegedly responsible for. They were sexist, racist and homophobic; little appears to have changed.
He was writing under a pseudonym, but as I understand it (__literally__ second-hand), he wasn't very discrete. These are probably still around - at NZUSA or OUSA.
-
Michael Laws. The possibilities...to have our very own Mark Thatcher.
-
"I tell you what, we are martial arts people, we know how to defend ourselves - a chair, a dustbin -anything can be a weapon"
Going by personal experience, the chosen weapon of Asians practicing martial arts (at least in Christchurch) actually tends to be the sabre. Unless they're cruelly forced into picking up an epee.
Mind you, that might just be the ones I know.
-
And against the backdrop of Zimbabwe this whole thread might seem like whistling in a graveyard, but when you see something like this (**WARNING: Link to graphic and NSFW photographs that SHOULD disturb and offend anyone with an electron of human decency**) how can you think of Mugabe without tears of helpless sorrow and rage? And puke. Lost of puke.
There was a checkpoint Charlie
He didn't crack a smile
But it's no laughing party
When you've been on the murder mileOnly takes one itchy trigger
One more widow, one less white niggerOliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today.I have a horrible feeling that pitch black anthem has a resonance in Zimbabwe Declan McMannus never intended.
-
thanks for that dose of cold harsh african reality craig. you really know how to take the fun out of a thread.
any comment on President Mbeki's role in all this? -
any comment on President Mbeki's role in all this?
Maybe he's looking at Iraq and thinking, "not in a 1000 years", to paraphrase a former ruler of what is now Zimbabwe.
-
Arguably the US, by intervening in Iraq in such a f...d up fashion, has poisoned the well for where a reasonable response could be justified.
(after the fashion of Uganda, where Amin was finally dealt to by the remarkably efficient Tanzanian army, after making the mistake of moving up from attacking his people to attacking his neighbours).
-
Arguably the US, by intervening in Iraq in such a f...d up fashion, has poisoned the well for where a reasonable response could be justified.
the whole iraq saga has certainly put me off the idea of invading and occupying countries in order to secure cheap oil. george w bush is so useless sometimes.
-
Really best if they sort it out themselves, a little encouragement sure, but any invasion will then require occupation.
It's not working in Sudan, why create more trouble, flood them with aid, to limit the humanitarian harm. -
any comment on President Mbeki's role in all this?
Nothing tasteful. And, folks, I don't think we can blame Chimpy McHitler for this. Sadly, the party line in Afirca seems to have been 'he may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch", just to add insult to injury Mbeki doesn't really give a shit about attacks on refugees either. Why is it that any expression of human decency from that quarter near inevitably seems to be grudging and weak?
-
(after the fashion of Uganda, where Amin was finally dealt to by the remarkably efficient Tanzanian army
That is a good example. If it could be repeated...
the party line in Afirca seems to have been 'he may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch"
Sorry Craig, but you are oversimplifying the attitudes of an entire continent *and* the position of neighbouring states, who, other than SA, are in no state whatsoever to mount and invasion.
-
Laws has some pretty twisted views about Africa.
I understand he had some things to say while at Otago University around the time of the Springbok Tour that didn't look good at the time, let alone quarter of a century later.
-
Don't recall anything about a thesis, but I do recall Laws organised a pro-tour group - called FART - on campus.
Laws' Otago thesis was on the sedition trial of Bishop Liston. He did a masters at Vic, not sure what that was on.
I thought the group was called SCRUM. Students Campaigning something something Movement.
-
I remember him writing a pretty nasty piece for Critic against feminists and lesbians - and when he failed to get elected in a student elections telling us "just you wait I'll be prime minister some day and you'll all be sorry" - anyone who was pro-tour at Otago back then was in a decided minority
-
Mr Laws did the Manhire Masters in Creative Writing at Vic....
I kid you not... i found one of his short stories in a slim volume of student work from that year.
-
Sorry Craig, but you are oversimplifying the attitudes of an entire continent *and* the position of neighbouring states, who, other than SA, are in no state whatsoever to mount and invasion.
Don: I'm rather lukewarm on the idea of invading Zimbabwe, but are you seriously arguing that 'quiet diplomacy' Mbeki-style hasn't done a hell of a lot of bring us to this pass. Sorry, I know it's not very polite to say so but while any criticism from these quarters can be dismissed (and exploited) as white colonialist oppression, it might just have made a difference if Mandela and Mbeki had opened their mouths when the first evidence of harassment and intimidation of opposition activists came to light.
-
Mugabe - the question I ask is "who and what does it serve to allow the present situation to continue?"
How much of a monster does Mugabe have to be (and his army that might or might not be under his control) before all the fretting around the sidelines solidifies into something else?
If that unthinkable scenario happened here, how would ordinary kiwis feel if our old allies sat round knitting while we got tortured and bumped off?
-
If that unthinkable scenario happened here, how would ordinary kiwis feel if our old allies sat round knitting while we got tortured and bumped off?
Well, I'm reasonably sure that Kevin Rudd would rather not have hundreds of thousands of Kiwi refugees (legal and otherwise) landing at Kingsford Smith and refusing to leave.
-
If that unthinkable scenario happened here, how would ordinary kiwis feel if our old allies sat round knitting while we got tortured and bumped off?
I think we're all a bit too white and first world for the rest of the world to let that happen.
Plus we have oil now, so any pretense for an invasion.
-
I think we're all a bit too white and first world for the rest of the world to let that happen.
At the risk of Godwin-ing myself, Germany was awfully "white and first world" between February 27, 1933 (the Reichstag Fire), and July 14 that same year (when it officially, and perfectly legally became a one-party state).
-
Craig, Mandela has been condemning of Mugabe for some time, as have many others in Africa. You are running pretty close to the "white man's" burden line. Your assumption that some of the poorest nations on the world should just go in and "sort it out" is pretty ignorant, to be honest.
When is NZ going to invade our neighbour Fiji, BTW? Beatings, arrests and torture going on there, aren't there? Plus for many years we supported an apartheid constitution in Fiji under the dubious pretense that it was "democratic". How long did it take "leaders" in Europe to stop the carnage on their doorstep in Yugoslavia?
-
At the risk of Godwin-ing myself, Germany was awfully "white and first world" between February 27, 1933 (the Reichstag Fire), and July 14 that same year (when it officially, and perfectly legally became a one-party state).
I'm not sure if 1933 Europe and 2008 World is a particularly valid comparison Craig. The failure of the League of Nations, pre-post-Colonialism, and the shock of the first World War are primary features of inter-war Europe, globalisation, world media and crazy indigenous dictators seem to be 'in' right now.
Regardless, I think my point that the rest of the world would take a lot more active interest in NZ being taken over by a military dictatorship still stands.
-
Craig, Mandela has been condemning of Mugabe for some time, as have many others in Africa. You are running pretty close to the "white man's" burden line. Your assumption that some of the poorest nations on the world should just go in and "sort it out" is pretty ignorant, to be honest.
Fucking hell, Don. Put the straw out for the cattle when you're done. Being the patronising white man that I am, I do actually think Thabo Mbeki does have some political and moral clout in Africa, and that vocal and substantive condemnation from the neighbourhood might just have a little more weight than statements from Turtle Bay, the White House or Downing Street.
And what part of "I'm rather lukewarm on the idea of invading Zimbabwe" didn't quite sink in. Actually, I should have said "I'm ice-cold on the idea of invading Zimbabwe, but it takes very little imagination to see a day when some kind of serious peacekeeping force is going to be needed." Perhaps New Zealand should stay the hell out of that, because we don't want to patronise Africans with humanitarian aid or expertise.
When is NZ going to invade our neighbour Fiji, BTW? Beatings, arrests and torture going on there, aren't there? Plus for many years we supported an apartheid constitution in Fiji under the dubious pretense that it was "democratic".
More petinent question, Don: How about a travel ban that's not a fucking joke? You know, we've got to keep those evil netballers and soccer players out of the country (and Zimbabwe's cricket team was beyond the pale), but heavens forbid we kill the buzz of the Rugby Sevens. And whatever I think of Helen Clark, at least she could promptly condemn that military coup in her backward. It's a simple statement of fact that Mbeki's response to Mugabe has been, by any standard, grudging and weak.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.