Posts by Tze Ming Mok
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Seems to me the most responsible thing for Ira to have done after such a lacklustre MSD response would have been... to tell Keith Ng.
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There's always the Ecuadorean Embassy, dude.
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Maybe people didn't move to Hong Kong for the low taxes and the liberal regulatory regime, but for the absence of a civil war and a cultural revolution? Maybe? Just a little?
snort!
Hearted.
Oh wait, this isn't a Gawker blog.
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Just to clarify - the new site maintenance time for Twitter (2pm Pacific) is 1:30 am-ish in Iran, which is still a bad time. It's after the media has gone home, and historically for Iran, 'the witching hour' when security forces attack under cover of darkness. Witness, the dormitory raids last night in Tehran, all well after 1am. Witness (though I'd rather not), Tiananmen.
And thanks for the props Russ, though all I'm doing is browsing and RT-ing the English language bridge-tweeters. The hashtag #iranelection is close to useless right now for on the ground info as it's the top trending subject. Some to follow (once they've woken up from their brief respites from this chaos) are @StopAhmadi (tweethub aggregator and steady head), @persiankiwi (compulsive updater with many landlines), @naseemfaqihi, in Dubai, but translates the BBC Persian language news reports, although she might have an exam tomorrow, @iran09 - some little anarchist firebrand geek who got namechecked by the BBC even, @Change_for_Iran, who, if he has 'disappeared' during the protests today, will cause my heart to break.
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Paul Holmes: "So, Senator Clinton, when you're not getting mani-pedis with Chelsea, do you read women's magazines?"
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@simon g: How could I fail to be moved by such a heartfelt plea. I have the most practical of suggestions for you as to how to find out what Asians in Auckland are thinking, in my absence: Talk to some Asians. Asians who live in Auckland. I am not one of them. You can probably find some on Facebook - that's where I got all my info about this issue.
@DeepRed & Angus: okay, sorry for the storm-off. In the confusion I even thought you guys were talking about me, not Melissa Lee and I was all 'WTF?'. To address the still-weird issues DeepRed's uncaffeinated comment raised: In general, it's not cool to reference Asian women's bodies as though they're interchangeable, even in a political context. It comes off pretty gross. Also, even if Lee is coming off uninformed or unpleasant, I have a feeling she has more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin, and even knows the name of the newspapers she reads. I don't think it's cool that any remotely obnoxious or underinformed female politician who looks set to lose an election gets automatically compared to the worst and most embarrassing example of a loser female politician ever - as opposed to say, Hilary Clinton, who has certainly in the past displayed the same characteristics (eg. she lost)...
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Uh, okay you guys. I won't be back...
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@DeepRed: Why are you trying to make me angry? Is it because you know I'm in London and that therefore you are safe?
(You are not safe.)
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Actual thread from news article shared on Facebook by Person Of Colour #1.
[link posted to "Political gaffes leave Melissa Lee's campaign in tatters"
POC1: "is dismayed.."POC2: likes this. [I don't know how to interpret this - TMM]
POC3 at 8:50pm May 14
It's unbelievably disappointing and so unnecessary.Me at 9:32pm May 14
I'm surprised that she'd be dumb enough to say something like that. And yet also, unsurprised that she would say something like that - considering that when a politician (let alone one with a shallow journalism background) gets stuck on a talking point (crime! crime! crime!) they will end up saying any fucking thing that leads back to that talking point, no matter how illogical. Keith pointed out the other day that she even tried to make the crazy sniper guy in Napier relate somehow to crime in Mt Albert. Because if it could happen in Napier... and there's a motorway between Napier and Mt Albert... crime! Hey, what about technically illegal use of publicly funded daytime work hours for political campaign purposes? Crime!POC2 at 9:40pm May 14
I feel for Melissa because no way I wanna be in her shoes a the moment. (Even if she has dug herself a hole and all)But I don't think she needs to mention the crime thing and sticks to the National Party's view point on why the motorway but not the tunnel. Even if the people are not happy with the selection, at least they are singing the same tune and she wouldn't have got this 'shit'.
It's all part of learning I guess....
Me at 9:52pm May 14
Duncan Garner's blog on the fallout is brutal (follow the various links from [POC1]'s article). It pretty much pegs her as being exposed on the campaign trail for a bully and a blowhard, and that her likelihood of rising high in the Party ranks is now slim. I don't know her personally, so have no comment on that - but dude, it is harsh.POC3 at 9:58pm May 14
I [don't] accept the 'heat of the moment' excuse because had it been genuinely heat of the moment, what the hell was she doing giving two radio i/vs the next morning defending her position and digging a deeper hole - before being yanked into apologising.
Later on in the same day, we hear she won't be giving any more ... interviews, only for her to pop up on Close Up and parrot a line over and over, then failing, yet again, to answer a basic question FOUR times. And THEN, on Nightline blathering again. I do understand that as a newbie, she's liable to make mistakes but how many mistakes can one *star* MP (with minders) make in 5 days over so many issues.Me at 10:06pm May 14
Indeed [POC3]. I guess this shows that experience in presentation and journalism on a soft-pedaling human interest programme really does not give you the chops for political debate. Alas! Look at how Asia Down Under has undermined the abilities of our best and brightest ethnic minority political prospects to participate fully and as equals in the democratic process! </>ironyPOC3 at 10:15pm May 14
I do feel for Asia Down Under's dedicated staff who have had to share in the horror. -
Keith, you are just bitter that they tainted your childhood memories of white rabbit candies.
Seems like a good argument in support of white collar corruption being more receptive to punitive deterrence, but you couldn't say for sure until more white collar criminals are executed and we have a more comprehensive data set. So, uh, death to corrupt officials in the name of rigorous social science I guess...