“There is a Maori way of seeing things and a Pakeha way,” said Hingston, who played down the prospect of serious disciplinary action by the party.
Hekia Hingston – co -president of Maori Party, who appears to defend Hone Harawira. Mr Hingston appears not to understand that this is not Maori v Pakeha,. This is just a revulsion by the many at the disgraceful and repellent remarks by Maori MP – Hone Harawira.
“Initially I thought he was joking. He has no right to talk like this. No matter his political or ethnic make-up it is no excuse.”
Former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere commenting on email he received from Hone Harawira.
The final tune from ‘Down the hall’ tonight is from Max Collie and hisRhythmn Aces. Recorded a couple of years ago in Germany, Adam first saw this band in the 1970s at The Trafalgar pub in Kings Road, Chelsea.
So to finish Max Collie, a great Aussie jazzman living in London, with Red Wing and a great drum solo
From 1954, Lonnie Donergan who was before the novelty songs an influential jazz and folk artist. Here he is with Digging My Potatoes with Chris Barber as well. The title belongs to the kitchen blues genre.
Second offering in tonight’s concert is the late George Melly, accompanied by John Chilton’s Feetwarmers with My Canary’s Got Circles Under His Eyes.
A December vist to London in the 1970s and 1980s was not complete without seeing Melly live at Ronnie Scott’s Club, usually in the lead up to Christmas.
Back to a much more jazz influenced ‘Down the Hall’ tonight.
First up is Humph, the late great Humphrey Lyttleton with a version of his 1955 chart hit of Bad Penny Blues. Check out the opening bars and see if you recognise where they recur in the pop canon.
This week the winners are the people of Auckland, visitors to the city and New Zealand. Why? Well John Banks and Mike Lee, an unlikely combination, Adam grants – decided to see sense over the folly that is/was Party Central and to scrap plans for a ‘cheap as chips’ iconic building – read nasty architectural monstrosity – to be built for the Roman circus legacy of the Clark regime, aka Rugby World Cup.
A few video screens,beer wagons, chipstalls, a sanitary block and vomit buckets are all that is needed – for Party Central, plus there is the Viaduct Basin.
Then set aside a proper budget and run a proper competition not an ersatz one.
The idea that an icon could be designed, selected and built for RWC on the nonsensical budget allocated was absurd.
By the way memo to Murray McCully, John Key and others concerned with RWC not everyone in NZ wants wall to to wall rugby on TV during the RWC. So let Maori TV have it, they cannot do worse than TVNZ.
There were several candidates, from the Vicar of Bray (aka Peter Dunne), Hone Harawira – but no, he deserves a special award all his own, Trevor Mallard – bovver boy suffers post traumatic stress after being bagged in Wellington street (probably by someone in the pay of mysterious US interests) . Rodney Hide seemed a front runner, but again like Hone Harawira, Rodney has entered a class of his own and Adam needs to find another special award for Mr Hide, simply awarding him Wally status yet again just will not do.
Then from the herd emerged – Michael Laws, the motormouth from WHanganui, whose obnoxious comments on sterilisation have now made it into The Straits Times. Laws who in many ways seems to mirror Hone Harawira .
So Adam’s Wally of the Week is the Mouth from Wanganui – Michael Laws.
The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.
Attributed to Julia Child
Saw Harawira on TV One News, he apologised for his expletives, but said he did not resile from the tenor of his remarks.
NZ Herald now reporting that Maori Party on verge of disciplining Harawira. Don’t hold your breath for anything substantial.
The man appears to be a racist. We do not need people like that in Parliament, if he was white the Race Relations people would already be looking into this matter. Let us remember that it was his relations who jostled John Key at Waitangi this year.
TV3 reported that Harawira’s mother said it was not up to the Maori Party to sit in judgement on Harawira.
Unless he is held to account and made to pay with a meaningful punishment, many will see it as pandering to an ill bred, rude oik.
The morality of compromise’ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised. I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.
Charles Handy – British management theorist and writer.
Off to listen to Chris Patten, last governor of Hong Kong, former EU Commissioner, who is speaking at lunchtime today at the WRCC.
Will report back later.
As a rule, corporations turn to strategy when they can’t justify their existence in other way, and they start planning when they don’t really know where they are going.
Matthew Stewart – The Management Myth.
Democrats lose two closely watched gubernatorial elections, New Jersey and Virginia. As Adam noted some days ago both were viewed as being somewhat of a litmus test on the Obama Presidency, with perhaps Virginia the more symbolic, though the White House was keeping it’s distance in Virginia, indeed the candidate was seen as not welcoming White House support.
In New Jersey, White House support and backing for the incumbent Jon Corzine was highly visible and strong. Thus this might be seen as a considerable rejection of Obama.
More later.
