Outrageous that Michelle Boag should dare to bleat about the dissemination given her “barely coffee coloured” observation to a journalist re the young woman on Waiheke Island. “I was being flippant……”. “I didn’t know I was talking to a (journalist)journalist.”http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776797
Huh ! Imagine the distress of the young woman repeatedly assaulted by John Key when she realised that Key’s pal the wannabe Rachel Glucina was not in fact a journalist but an undercover operative from Planet Key. All set to do a media hatchet job on her as the victim.
Leitch racist ? I find that a long bow to draw frankly. His comment misinterpreted ? Possibly. Certainly however Leitch’s “white mans’ island” comment is emblematic of the gentrification of Waiheke and the subliminal racism which of course attends that gentrification. Leitch has bought into that even if unwittingly.
Accepting Boag’s rationalisation in her “barely coffee coloured” comment is to give kudos to the canard – ‘merely saying what everyone else (allegedly) is thinking’. Hmmm. OK. Let me say that ever since Leitch’s “This Is Your Life” with Paul Holmes I think it was, this is what I’ve been thinking – Leitch presents as a fairly unabashed lickspittle to the rich and powerful in New Zealand.
Why do I think that ? Because of the stunned looks on the faces of particularly Kiwi Adam Blair but also other Kiwis/Warriors present. As they, Leitch having done his ‘turn’ with them, were put aside for excruciatingly slavish dancing with Holmes and Key.
Oh well…….good on you Sir Peter, your good works etc. But to hell with you Michelle Boag for your racist elitisim. Some PR person you turned out to be !
Oh well…….good on you Sir Peter, your good works etc.
It always seems to me that the Peter Leitchs of this world are really only playing to their own vanity when they ‘reflect’ loudly on their good works. The true philanthropists never talk about their philanthropy. It gets done quietly behind the scenes without any fuss.
Al Capone gave millions of dollars to charity. So does that scourge of public education, Bill Gates. So does that gruesome old, racist, sexist, violent boor “Sir” Robert Jones.
Yep. I tend to the view that rich people going on about their giving to charity is try to hide the unethical actions that they’ve had to do to become rich.
Yeah thanks Anne, Morrissey, Maui. I’d always entertained that my acknowledged ‘indulgence’ amounted to nothing more than over-commitment to substances and physically attractive people. But no, clearly. Many thanks for ‘saying what I was always thinking’ ! When it comes to snobs/poor boys made ‘good’, bootstraps, licking John Key’s arse, etc etc etc, I’m taking on the hues of the zealous martinet. For the rest of 2017.
Poor Old Butcher. He really fucked it up when he got the Boagy Lady on the job. Wonder what she charged him ? Conscience should command her to pay it all back. Conscience ? Well of course that’s fucking weird in connection with that entitled crone.
Actually North, Leitch has been “fucking up” for years. He was a loud defender of Graham Lowe’s crude and ignorant outbursts about the Warriors having too many Polynesians, and he’s been one of John Key’s most avid supporters.
He deserves every bit of opprobrium that’s been heaped on his horrible head.
Then there’s the time he backed up Murray Deakers use of the N word. He’s racist alright, he can’t hide behind his multicultural support of the Warriors.
I would expect those kind of words possibly from a World War 2 vet, when words like hori and nip were used, not from someone Leitchs age. Hes only had like 60 years to grow out of it! As an ambassador for Pacific sport too there’s no excuse for him I believe.
But that’s just the thing. Despite the noise from all parts of the political spectrum, I am almost certain that Leitch doesn’t give a damn about having an excuse for this or that. He’s just who he is and he just does what he does.
You seem to enjoy particular felicity with the horrible bastards CV……we know what Leitch thinks and we don’t need you to tell us. Especially not with the applause you reserve for the horrible bastards. Supreme, unequalled leftie, disaster you.
I know, why doesn’t someone start a petition to strip Leitch of his knighthood. Or some other equally pointless and unpopular bullshit. Then you can sign it to signal to everyone how outraged you are about how deplorable and irredeemable Leitch is.
Well, he’s an old white guy with residual attitudes and terminology common and left over from a certain generation.
Nonsense. My grandfather was older than Leitch, and I never heard him use derogatory language about Maori, either in earnest or in “jest”. Nor did I hear his friends ever talk like that.
Leitch’s words are disgusting, no matter what the context in which he uttered them.
Sounds like you don’t understand the society that your grandfather grew up in. Clue: NZ still had a poll tax against Chinese at the time, and was actively trying to stomp out Maori culture.
But you know all these things, so why pretend you don’t?
Yes, all those terrible things happened, just as terrible things are happening today. It’s not the Chinese that are being discriminated against now, it’s people from the Middle East. And, as the ugly Don Brash phenomenon of 2004 illustrated, there is still a filthy war being orchestrated against Maori.
Do you think I should assume that you reflexively mouth the racist bilge that fills our airwaves, just because you happen to be living now? Do you attack women and vituperate black people simply because you are living in the Age of Trump?
I’m telling you for a fact that my grandfather was NOT a racist, and he never said an unkind word—either seriously or jokingly—about Maori. And neither did my grandmother. Nor did my parents.
It was politicians who brought in the Chinese poll tax, just as it’s politicians bringing about the iniquities of the present day.
You wrote the following highly contentious statement to explain Leitch’s ugly behaviour:
he’s an old white guy with residual attitudes and terminology common and left over from a certain generation.
To refute that, I pointed out to you that many other—probably MOST other—“old white guys” were not racist, and I used my grandfather as an example. I was refuting a spurious excuse for Leitch’s racism that you brought up, not making it a conversation about my grandfather as you choose to misconstrue it.
Too true CV – the one thing that this blog is really good at is Outrage. We all need a bit of rage to fuel us up for changes for the better. Pity it gets let out just to cast aspersions, dildos and rotten eggs.
Keep it for fuel I suggest and feed it though your mind in measured doses, enough to go out and support arguments for better policies, earnest discussions with practical outcomes, support for people grappling with need such as foodbanks and free clothing etc.
en you can take your muscles and your trailers and make yourself available to shift people, things, for those who are permanently footloose and resource-poor because of our venal economic society. Women could try being less fault-finding, middle class and po-faced and look for helpful ways to promote peoples welfare, having a regular school clinic for nits, encouraging health camps to be set up, taking families for doctor’s visits, paying for people’s prescriptions, helping kids and parents to read better.
Actually do something, let others know you are doing something to encourage more doing-somethings of a worthwhile nature. Don’t be afraid to air it so as you can claim to be better than a rich guy flaunting his good deeds, just tell others, start a ‘doing, being helpful’ movement which is working away with number of people already but more is needed. The theme hasn’t got enough push to become the in thing in society yet.
There are parts of your comment I agree with greyrawshark (there’s a hell of a lot of outrage on this site…). Having said that, ironically, I find myself pretty pissed off at the sexism embedded in your assumption that men should lift and carry things for people, and women should look after families and such. Plus, why single out women for being “po-faced”? (And BTW, “middle class” applies to men as well as women (duh!). And you seem to assume that women can’t be working class, or bosses, or business owners.)
Stuff your PCness and sexist filter on comments. It is time to talk frankly about reality not tiptoe around, worrying if some brainwashed people are unable to hear what is said because they have to check that it doesn’t offend somebody’s sensibilities.
I’m talking about things I know about and describe needs accurately. And by the way men tend to have bigger muscles than women, ever looked at the average woman’s arms, and will usually be welcomed by organisations shifting furniture, books, carting cartons of clothes for opportunity shops etc.
Men like driving as a rule. So they will also be welcomed if they are of good repute, to deliver meals on wheels etc.
How dare you suggest that there might sometimes be real differences between men and women, and that we should not be afraid to recognise that fact! /sarc
“I’M LITERALLY SHAKING” You don’t give a fuck CV and that’s hardly a good basis on which to enter comment. Be different were there any ‘Sino’ attached of course. That’s racist as all fuck to start.
Ms Boag says she didn’t know until after making the “coffee coloured” comment that she was on speaker phone to a number of other people (insert: SHIT HOT MEDIA PR SPECIALIST BOAG IN ACTION).
On Stuff: “Hours after the Race Relations Commissioner called Sir Peter Leitch “the least racist person” she knew, she has condemned his comments as “casual racism”.” About face?
The most painful aspect of this uproar is to realise how many people (even the apparently well-intentioned) have such a limited understanding of how racism,or sexism, or class discrimination plays out.
Full text and analysis of Syrian cease fire agreement between Syria, Iran and Russia; excludes US involvement
– Political process for working with agreeable non-extremist rebels outlined – US irrelevant – Turkish agreement critical as jihadists cannot be resupplied without Turkish co-operation – Can Erdogan be trusted (probably not) – Kurdish aspirations the meat in the sandwich again – Russia gets what it has always wanted: a separation of “moderate” rebels from Wahhabi jihadists, allowing latter to be annihilated and former co-opted into a peaceful political process.
Whilst it was these fictional negotiations between Lavrov and Kerry which continued to hold the limelight, the real negotiations were going on behind the scenes between the militaries of Russia and Turkey, without the US being consulted or involved.
Moreover it is now clear from Shoigu’s words that the Turks made a political decision to come to a settlement with the Russians over Syria by October at the latest, so that the discussions which took place during November and December were of an essentially technical nature: determining what territories the groups that would be covered by the ceasefire actually controlled, getting the groups to sign up to the ceasefire plan, and agreeing the technicalities of monitoring the ceasefire and enforcing it.
Most of the ceasefire plan, the text of which I have provided above, sets out the monitoring and enforcement procedures, and confirms that Turkey has agreed to guarantee the compliance of the seven groups who have signed up to it.
On Susan Devoy, she really isn’t suited to the job at all. Casual, clumsy, and unable to differentiate the personal from the professional. We’ve seen her get into hot water several times.
Yes she was – really good idea wasn’t it, to give an appointment like that to someone who was good at hitting a ball at a wall! By the way, someone on facebook just stated the blindingly obvious that if Leitch was an ok person there’s no way he’d have someone like Boag speaking for him. Indeed – birds of a feather, and all that!
Yeah, appointed over the back fence. Talking to next-door-neighbour the super-family-values-super-hypocrite-super-something else-in-fact, guy. What was his name ? The sartorial scream, former lawyer, former Minister of Health.
Thanks for that, Sacha. Someone should read these words out on the radio….
I was one of Bill’s three kids always sitting in the back of the old-beat-up-car or hiding under the stands at Carlaw, one of the kids you barely noticed as you said what you liked about who, what and when you liked. A kind of self-appointed-King in Auckland’s rugby league circles. Monied and mouthy and filthy rich. People generally knew not to mess with the Butcher. Because if they did, there was generally something to lose.
That’s because you are known for your ‘generosity’. You are known for being the guy who cultivates friendship and favour by making big donations, whether in cash or kind to the cause. And you and I both know that when my dad’s compulsive gambling habit had taken over his life (to the point where when he had no job and his second “coconut” wife had left him – yes I remember you calling her that – and he was bankrupt, again), you were one of the few people that gave him a job. Selling meat out of the back of his car for you. I remember that. I remember traipsing around Auckland with dad in his bomb and him pulling over to sell frozen meat to people. Hoping they might buy some so he could pay you back. I don’t know if the arrangement was under the table, but I suspect it was.
Yup, that was 1990s Auckland – and in league circles no one blinked an eye at Bill doing a bit of work on the side for the Butcher. Cause the thing is you were the King. And your generosity had another name. A name I’ve come to appreciate in my adult years as I’ve encountered more and more people in positions of influence and power. It’s called Patronage. Looking after people so long as they look after you.
More Zero Hedge “fake news”: Russia sends naval ships to Philippines for joint exercises
I wonder how the USN stationed in and around the Philippines feels about this. That CIA wet team must be looking at sorting out Filipino President Duterte any month now so the USA can return common sense to the nation.
Possibly. There are people throughout the governmental structures of the Philippines who are part of the nascent narco state. As their survival becomes more at stake, the more extreme the measures they will take against Duterte.
And the regime change experts from the USA will actively assist them.
“Hours after the Race Relations Commissioner called Sir Peter Leitch “the least racist person” she knew, she has condemned his comments as “casual racism”.”
About face?
What do YOU think?
– US irrelevant
– Turkish agreement critical as jihadists cannot be resupplied without Turkish co-operation
– Can Erdogan be trusted (probably not)
– Kurdish aspirations the meat in the sandwich again
– Russia gets what it has always wanted: a separation of “moderate” rebels from Wahhabi jihadists, allowing latter to be annihilated and former co-opted into a peaceful political process.
By the way, someone on facebook just stated the blindingly obvious that if Leitch was an ok person there’s no way he’d have someone like Boag speaking for him. Indeed – birds of a feather, and all that!