diaTribe - Last comments

In response to: Second Sense Ringing

Apologies for the sound quality of this clip. The place was packed and the only spot to get footage from was behind the speakers. Anti-node city! :-(

In response to: Redefining Indigenous

Is this the same bloke do you think?

In response to: Redefining Indigenous

Piripi / Jeff

I merely pointed out that no other country that I am aware of makes the speaking of the language of it's 'indigenous' people compulsory, including the United States, where the UN is based. If the basis of making Te Reo Māori compulsory in schools is because it is an 'official' language, then we should also apply the same rule to making the learning of sign language compulsory. It too is an official language in New Zealand. Do you support making learning sign language compulsory at school too?

I'm not sure where the plagiarism accusation comes from; Just because it's been said before doesn't mean it's been plagiarized. I certainly quoted and linked to all points of reference in the article. The Moriori were 'conquered'? All but obliterated appears to be closer to the truth. These days we have a word for that; genocide.

I do rather resent the accusation that I have a problem with "races". What I have a problem with (and I'm pretty sure I'm far from alone here) is the culture of ongoing victim hood. I understand that there are inconsistencies in the English and Māori versions of the treaty and as a result, there have been real issues which needed to be addressed.

But even a rough count of the financial compensation paid since the first publicly acknowledged land claims raised after the Bastion point protests, pretty quickly gets measured in billions. A nation of around 4 million people simply can't afford to keep stumping up this volume of cash, to assuage some outmoded sense of post-colonial guilt. Furthermore, ongoing compensation does nothing to settle grievances, promote national harmony or even move us any closer to any form of mutually acceptable settlement.

Aside from financial compensation issues, New Zealand as a country has made a greater effort to preserve the culture of the Māori people, than pretty much any other nation has made to preserve the cultures of it's own indigenous peoples. It's far from perfect and mistakes have undeniably been made, but I've traveled to virtually every continent on the planet and nowhere else have I seen the living culture of a distinct indigenous minority so actively integrated into the mainstream of the majority culture and society. In almost every other country, the indigenous minority have been marginalized to a far greater extent, sometimes to the point where the general population don't even know they exist (an example would be the Ainu people of Japan).

And finally, whether I've lived here or abroad, this is my country as much as anyone else who was born here. I will therefore continue to express my opinions and if you don't like it, then 'hard shit' yourself!

In response to: Redefining Indigenous

Piripi

Different idiot, same bullshit strategy. Every time anyone dares to question the treaty status quo, the race card gets played with the use of words like racist and bigot. Whats bigoted about their opinion? As far as I can see all the guy(?) has done is point out a few inconsistencies in the UN argument and lampoon some some silly bugger who gets his face slapped on TV.

In response to: Redefining Indigenous

Different day same arguments plagiarised from elsewhere. Nothing new with anything you say. 35 chiefs signed the bullshit treaty you allude to written in English - which was[nt] worth the paper it was written on like other fraudulent documents; the other written in Maori signed by over 500 chiefs and backed by international law.

Moriori were conquered; Maori were not. Do Moriori still own their land? I think they do.

If the UN says Maori are indigenous and someone who has just 'come back into the country' doesn't like it, then hard shit. Seriously, you'd be happier staying away but my guess is you'd transfer your problems with other races to the other country. Such is the nature of bigots. Paora FTW!

In response to: Ten reasons why we should ALL boycott BP

What we could really do with is some serious research into alternatives to fossil fuels. At the moment we are just tinkering around the margins because there is no real will to find a solution...oil is just too much of a cheap and easy solution by comparison.

But if we invested a few billion dollars (paid out of taxes on the oil company profits, but overseen by an independent board of consumers, government and groups such as Greenpeace) we might be able to come up with a cheap, clean alternative. Which means that we can use oil for far more important things.

In response to: Flip Grater: Poetry in Music

Flip has announced tour dates - check them out!

In response to: Introducing the 'Strait-Jacket Award' for dysfunctional packaging

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In response to: Happy 40th Birthday Andy

Thanks to my cousin Paul for this...I hadn't even heard it until he kindly rocked up with the guitar tab, a copy of the track and his own guitar. Cheers Cuz!

In response to: A Good Winter Day

Yep it's a nice hot pools too. Not saltwater, but pleasant and a little cheaper than the Mount too.

In response to: A Good Winter Day

The Fernland spa on Cambridge road is my favourite.

In response to: Redefining Indigenous

The Wikipedia Article on the Moriori people has more information on this incident.

This is also precisely my point; This terrible event is also in the distant past. I'm not saying it should be forgotten, but just like the wrongs done to the Maori by some European settlers (who in turn had probably been wronged in some way - it wasn't lords and ladies that emigrated here after all) it has to be forgiven if we are to move on as a nation.

Until we can put this stuff behind us, we will never find our true identity as New Zealanders.

In response to: Introducing the 'Strait-Jacket Award' for dysfunctional packaging

Maybe you need one of these gadgets - I must admit I'm thinking about getting one myself (even though the bloke selling them is bloody annoying).

In response to: Redefining Indigenous

My family hails from the Chatham Islands, which is home to the handful of remaining Moriori people - a people slaughtered and all but wiped out by the Taranaki Maori about 150 years ago. I don't spend all my time whinging like a milk-sop pommie about it. I just get on with it.

In response to: Ten reasons why we should ALL boycott BP

I have at least one friend who keeps banging on about how much money BP is spending to put things right, compared to the Exxon-Valdez thing a few years back. That's all well and good, but if they had spent a bit more in following reasonable safety measures and decent disaster contingency, then they wouldn't be in the mess they are in now!

To me the argument is a bit like saying: Well Charles Manson was a bit of a murdering git but at least he didn't kill as many people as Pol Pot! Wtf dude?

And of course that bastard Hayward has walked away from the whole mess with a million quid bonus and a hefty 10 million pension top-up. It's enough to make any reasonable human being be violently sick!

In response to: Flip Grater: Poetry in Music

Beautiful album and a good review

In response to: Flip Grater: Poetry in Music

Nice write-up. Like what I heard.

In response to: Flip Grater: Poetry in Music

Wow! Just visited the links and listened to a couple of the tracks. Nice!

In response to: Happy 40th Birthday Andy

...and apologies for the wobbly voice, which (unintentionally) sounds like a goat being driven down a cobbled street in a 2CV.

In response to: Introducing the 'Strait-Jacket Award' for dysfunctional packaging

Yeah, at first it was just isolated stuff but this level of packaging design dysfunction seems to be getting so prevalent nowadays, that you often just come to expect it.