Posts by Russell Brown
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Ike Finau's signs?!?! Well, some argued that free speech shouldn't be constrained by the same rules that govern the advertising of beer and cars... I'm just glad I wasn't involved in that debate.
Yeah, but my view was that if that's your perspective, you need to change the environmental bylaws, not simply ignore them. I wonder if the most viable argument for Mr Finau's abusive signage is that it's a form of Grey Lynn folk art ...
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Yep, it would be great if businesses actually put up a nice clear street number to save all that pesky slowing down in heavy traffic trying to locate one amongst all the clutter of signs with everything but. Currently the multitude of signs in most of our shopping strips resembles the late-night noise in a crowded bar – there are so many voices raised over one another it is difficult to actually focus on what is important to you.
Really Leigh? I can't recall ever having that problem. Obviously, there should be boundaries, but the council's own before-and-after example seems completely over the top to me.
The billboards themselves may be located on private property but the whole point of them is that they can be seen by as many people as possible in public places - the streets, parks, shopping precincts etc. One of the benefits of the review is that we all now get a chance to say if that is a good or bad thing - or if we'd prefer to enjoy our cityscape without Coca Cola and Vodafone pushing their consumer goods at us. So, write a submission!
But you're talking about a commercial business district - it's where commerce, including the pushing of consumer goods, is meant to take place. I don't see business as a bad thing.
What I wonder is if anyone will have the nerve to take on Ike Finau over his forest of abusive and defamatory signs next to the West Lynn shops. When the council said it was going to enforce the environmental bylaws he's flouting, various people, including the Water Pressure Group and the Green Party, were up in arms. (Now, of course, he has signs abusing the Green Party too, along with Brian Rudman and others.)
The council wimped out there. But they're still prepared to nail someone for putting a sign outside their shop ...
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But seeing as you're asking, I think there's doubt about whether Gibbs' comments, while in breach, were actually racist in intent.
At the game in Gauteng (ie, in South Africa, not in Pakistan), a group of Pakistani supporters were abusing Gibbs and his team-mates and throwing objects from the crowd. There have even been claims that they were racially abusing South African players and Ntini had been hit on the head with a Pakistani flag the previous day.
So it was clearly a test match being played in an unpleasant spirit. Gibbs apparently said: "they're like bloody animals", in reference to the spectators, then "go back to the zoo", then "fucking Pakistanis," which will have been the part that really got him into trouble.
Gibbs is a trouble magnet: he's been disciplined for taking bribes (but not going through with it), smoking pot, and now verbal abuse. It's not clear to me whether he was abusing on the basis of skin colour (he's "coloured" himself) but it seems fair enough to say he's a dick.
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Don’t get me wrong, our victory over Australia is amazing and I can barely remove the grin from my face today, but I couldn’t help thinking is this Hard News or a Woman’s Weekly cum Sports Café feel good piece?
Well, pardon me not finding something unhappy to say about cricket. But to be honest, I haven't even followed the Gibbs controversy. Why should I?
If you want detailed commentary on world cricketing controversies, start your own blog and write about it yourself. Seriously.
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I have to say that I do have a slight bit of sympathy for Labour given the state of the NZ media these days.
In this case a bit, yeah. Cullen wasn't voicing policy or anything like it. The mortgage levy was among ideas raised in a Treasury-Reserve Bank report (focusing on the ineffectiveness of interest rate shifts when everyone was on fixed-rate mortgages) and he said it was worth studying. The main media organisations went all front-page and generally carried on like there was going to be a levy by lunchtime.
OTOH, as Graham points out, Herself does have a tendency to regard journalists being journalists as a personal affront.
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I see it as positive, by drawing attention to the multi-culturalism of our sports teams we remind ourselves that NZ is a South Pacific nation.
I agree. Taylor seems more than happy to talk about himself in terms of his Samoan heritage. Given that he's only the second Samoan New Zealander to play international cricket (and I have a feeling he'll have more of a career than Murphy Su'a) it seems noteworthy.
I for one enjoy seeing young Samoan NZers rise to the top of various professions.
PS: Oddly enough, Parore got snotty when people insisted on pronouncing his name correctly ...
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You'll notice that the Hair Co (Toni & Co) and the physio signs ahve been reduced in size. The real estate agents, cafe and antique shops signs have gone completely!
That's quite revealing. I think you could make a case that that big billboard isn't related to any of the businesses and damages the heritage value of the buildings, but the rest of them are just people letting you know what their business is. Like I said, is there really any public clamour for this action?
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I'm all for loosing the billboards - I bet 6 months after it comes in to effect people will realize how marketing had taken over far too much of the Auckland landscape and that in the end was a good move.
Possibly - although it's hardly a question that's convulsed the city - but it's not just the billboards now: the proposed crackdown on signage on privately-owned businesses just makes no sense. See Matt's post above this one.
And it's small business that will cop this. There'll still be plenty of scope for pug-ugly KFC outlets and ghastly Westfield logos.
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*Wistfully dreams of This Kind Of Punishment reforming*
I know what you mean. That's the way I first read the email alert - both the bro's. It would be really cool to hear 'Beard of Bees' revived live. Chris Matthews would have to be there too, of course.
I could go on about how I was living in the house where 'Beard of Bees' was recorded, but hey ...
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In keeping with random youtube type links and in light of the UNICEF report too.
Yeah baby. That one paragraph you quoted is such a bloody tasty morsel of rhetoric in itself.
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