Posts by Margaret B
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Craig, I agree, I wish Helen would stop going on about it (and I guess that may mean the media need to stop fixating on it).
What I would like a journo to ask is the following question of Mr Key:
"Have you discussed the incident with the National MP involved, and have you indicated to him that if he did grab another MP by the tie that is not acceptable behaviour?"
Trev was wrong. Tau's alleged actions prove he may have been a bit wrong too (of course less than Trev, it's never acceptable to bop someone as he did). If Key is going to continue to go on and on about how Helen handled Trev's actions then he should be opening himself up to some scrutiny about how he is handling Henare.
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I agree Russell that my comment is a bit soft on Kruger, and you are right that he was certainly enjoying his own rhetoric. I definitely got a sense that he was enjoying himself in an odd way.
In the bit you quote in your original post Kruger referred to rising up, in response to a question about violence, which I found very telling. To me the words "rise up" have many meanings beyond (or should I say before) armed insurrection. The history of Maori attempts to seek redress for wrongs is not littered with violence initiated by them, but more commonly by genuine attempts at justice through the systems established by the state, eg the courts, the Waitangi Tribunal, to the point of quite extreme patience. When I heard Kruger say "rise up" I wished that he had been more explicit about the different forms of opposition he might have been thinking of.
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I found the Sunday interview and piece very frustrating. I was visiting my parents at the time and they seemed to share this frustration, despite being politically rather, ahem, different, from me.
The interviewer appeared to be asking radical questions to prompt radical responses, and I actually thought Kruger was being remarkably restrained in reply. Even me ol' Dad, who is no friend of Maori activists, noticed this. It was a terrible interview, and while Kruger's responses were frustratingly vague, I felt that a lot of that came from the obvious intention from the makers to create a segment full of tension and conflict. Kruger was trying to avoid that, I felt, whilst not backing down from exposing the injustices he wanted to highlight.
Was it really necessary for Sunday to show endless shots of haka and so on and lay the sound of gunshots over the top? The footage of kids shooting at clay pigeons was supposed to be chilling, but really just showed that they weren't very good shots. I used to go on camps where rifle shooting was a standard activity, but I guess that was white kids so that was ok.
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The thing is Neil, you do rather seem to have already made up your mind about the guilt of those arrested today. Innocent until proven guilty anyone?
Angus, I think we shall have to give up on our gloriously underwhelming bid to keep discussing the Auckland local body elections, this thread is well and truly away from that now! :-)
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(Going way way back on this thread to the original discussion about Auckland's elections...)
Angus, I'm not sure Hinchcliff was ever a credible choice. His policy ideas certainly didn't dovetail with those of City Vision and he acted, as a CV elected councillor, in ways incommensurate with continuing a healthy association with that organisation. If he wanted CV endorsement he didn't really make any effort to get it.
He also promised certain people within CV that he would pull out if he polled less than 5%. In the Herald poll he got 4.5%, but did he pull out? No. This was well before CV had even breathed a whisper of endorsing anyone, including Hubbard.
Ultimately I don't think Hinchcliff was ever a viable option for the centre-left to get behind for the mayoralty. I would be really interested in some discussion from PA readers about who might be a goer for 2010, but I suspect we are all a bit more fixated on the two big Ts (Transport and Terrorism) ;-)
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Angus - who should the centre-left in Auckland City have backed for the mayoralty then? City Vision didn't officially endorse anyone until it became clear that Hubbard was the only person close enough to have a chance of beating Banks.
Ultimately I find Russell's figures very illuminating. Basically the centre-right voted and the centre-left didn't. Partly this is an enrollment issue, and I think we will see a much bigger focus from all tickets on turnout next time. It's also about there not being a centre-left mayoral candidate to jolly that campaign along. Any suggestions for someone to run next time should be made now!
On the issue of these arrests, I think perhaps folks should wait until the people arrested have had a chance to talk back before making up their minds? My experience of peace activists, and indeed many of those involved in the sovereignity movement and environmental groups, is that non-violence is pretty much tattooed on their foreheads.
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Ah, sadly I fear that I have come to this thread too late to put in any kind of creditable bid for second five. Alas.
I'm happy to sit on the reserves bench and run up and down the sidelines in my tracksuit every so often, throwing the opposition into a substitution speculation lather, though.
I'll admit I know a bit about the game, and I used to love it with the same passion as my dear ol' Dad. But years of seeing All Blacks treated like demigods, particularly in relation to their misdemeanours (someone already mentioned wife-beating I believe?) has seen me disengage from the Cult of Rugby, whilst still retaining an interest in watching actual games.
And can I humbly suggest that the PA System Women's First XV look at breaking away from black for the jerseys? Black is so last season.
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I think also that the War on Pseudonyms fails to recognise that women sometimes have a different experience of online forums than men. Although it's not in my life experience, I wonder if those who openly identify as non-heterosexual may face similar barriers to using their real names.
Linger makes some good points about a consistent pseudonym being different from anonymous trolling.
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Russell, you may be interested to know that Mr Hicks is in fact a C&R candidate. I note he hasn't declared it in his comments.
The thing that bugs me about the billboard campaign is the secrecy. I have no problem with political campaigns, be they via billboard or leaflet or TV or radio or painting yourselves red and running around the local shopping mall. But I don't like not knowing who is doing the campaigning, particularly when rather than advocating a vote for something (in which case you can reasonably make some assumptions about who they are) but instead are asking you to vote against.
I think it's part of an open and transparent democratic process to know who is advocating any position - informed choice is based in part on knowledge of the source of information, so that you can make a judgement about its credibility and honesty.
And that what is lacking with this billboard campaign - honesty.
(And in the interests of honesty I should disclose that a relative and several friends are candidates in the local body elections, mostly for City Vision, and that I have helped out with the CV campaign).