Paul Henry's golden handshake for racism
Golden handshake for Paul Henry?
Suggestions of a golden handshake for broadcaster Paul Henry were raised by Labour in Parliament today, but Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman maintains he is unaware of the parting terms and won't get involved in the issue.
I'm sorry. What? Paul Henry gets a golden handshake for insinuating that only white people can be NZers??? I'm sorry. What? How the bloody hell can he get a golden handshake for one of the most racist comments ever uttered on Public Broadcasting? I'm fairly certain that the National Party would want to make sure their favourite mouthpiece was looked after for sentimental reasons if nothing else, but paying him out after the shocking comment he made makes my flesh creep.
Paul Henry supporters of course have gone troppo. They have tied so much of their own cultural identity to Paul Henry that to accuse him of prejudice is to accuse them of prejudice hence their desperate and sad attempts to defend and rationalize Paul Henry’s comments by comparing them to Hone Harawira’s comments about white mofos raping the land.
Let’s just put this one to bed right now shall we? Hone Harawira is responsible for his comments to the electorate who voted him in, Paul Henry on the other hand is a staff member at the Public Broadcaster and as such does not have the luxury of personal opinion afforded to Hone. Public broadcasting is supposed to start from a platform of tolerance, having Paul offend everyone from feminists to none white NZers with the promise to put the boot into blind people who lose their guide dogs isn’t really playing to our higher angels is it?
There’s also another point at stake here. John Key has quietly shut down all his regular weekly interviews on Bfm, RDU and KiwiFM so that the slot on Breakfast is one of the few times John Key is actually held to account and what do we get? Racist brainfarts from the oompa loompa of citizenship witch hunts.
Please god let Micheal Laws and Paul Henry get trapped in an elevator together so they can both bore each other to death.
posted by Bomber @ 8:40 am
24 comments
24 Comments:
everyhorizion foundation. look it up before you start spouting your one eyed rhetoric.
Come on Bomber, thats cheap even for you.
Its merely speculation that he *MIGHT* get a golden handshake. And that speculation has been started by the Opposition.
Colemen stated categorically that he has no knowledge of any terms, and nor should he. Its between TVNZ and Henry and has nothing to do with the Minister.
You could say a better comparison for Hone is Michael Laws who kept on getting elected as mayor in spite of habitually making racists comments on public broadcasting as opposed to Hone's private email... no wait, that doesn't quite work either... unless we can dismiss those who voted Laws in as racists as well...
Paul Henry and his ilk represent the dying gasps of British Empire thinking - which is that the only people with cultural authority and rights are white Anglo Saxons. Based on race and cultural identity they have a high opinion of their own worth and a low opinion of the worth of anyone not like them. These people are scared they're losing their imagined place in the scheme of things but they needn't be - in a just and civil society there's room for everyone.
"which is that the only people with cultural authority and rights are white Anglo Saxons."
You mean the cultural rights of freedom of speech, respect for the individual, equality and democratic government et al.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say these virtues are superior to other forms of cultural expression.
I look forward to your arguments against these values.
I don't see any support for equality or respect for the individual in Paul Henry's rantings. And it's convenient to use the 'freedom of speech' card I guess, but surely in the context of what is appropriate for national television a mature and thoughtful person would exercise discretion about what they say, and be aware that incendiary remarks are more damaging than funny?
"You mean the cultural rights of freedom of speech, respect for the individual, equality and democratic government et al."
You might want to look at, I don't know, Africa, The Middle East, New Zealand Maori, Australian Aboriginals.... Before you go to far out on that limb on those "superior values" Anon.
Or can your values still be superior even when you only apply them to yourselves while devistating the ret of the globe?
I'll be interested in your defense of the History of the Anglo Saxon Empires
Africa = hellhole of starvation and war
Middle East = religious fanatics with institutionalised discrimination against women homosexuals who produce nothing of value except dates and hashish
Maori = should be glad the Crown brought civilisation else they'd have wiped themselves out.
My only defence of Anglo Saxon culture is why you don't like it so much then go live in another country.
Obviously since these cultures are so superior then we should prevent Anglo saxon culture from poisoning them just stop accepting refugees, immigrants and foreign aid.
Predictable. Probably gave each other golden showers too.
I love you Anon, that was beautiful. Thanks!
And tell me a little if the History if the British Empire's
exploits in Africa and the Muddle East and a little about
how this might effect the present. And if you didn't mind providing some analysis of how colonization may have effected Maoridom while you're at it.
I wouldn't mind staying here if you don't mind, but it would be nice if my co immigrants, that includes you and those who preceeded us, could accept this country as being founded on emigration and now and since the whalers and the miners a multiethnic country.
Why don't you tell us a little of the history of those countries preceeding colonisation, how they've been economic miracles and beacons of hope and tolerance to mankind.
Maybe you want to be wither in liberal guilt about the British empire but you can do it alone. Do you think Maori have any regrets about their proud history of warfare against each other? DO they denigate their own culture based on something they did 300 years ago? Maybe you should go onto a marae and say they should be ashamed of their history.
I'm suggesting you shouldn't be surprised when it comes back and bites you in the arse in the form of immigration, refugees, terrorism et al.
And Imperialism is just as ripe now as it was 300 years ago, now perpetrated by the American Empire in the Middle East...
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174789
/the_mother_ship_lands_in_iraq
I have no guilt, my Celtic ancestors were fighting the Brits when they first expanded their borders.
To support something simply based on having been born into is surely the definition of ignorance. I can be born into this culture but disagree with it's ethics. Your "beacons of hope and tolerance to mankind" may need to look at the current situation in Waziristan or the cluster bombs blowing limbs off children in Vietnam and Cambodia or the sweat shops and slavery that allow you to buy all that cheap plastic shit that litters your garage and forms an island of rubbish as big as Texas in the Pacific or the tariffs and speculation that manipulate commodity prices in favour of Food Corporations and their shareholders and lead to starvation across the poor word.
You live in fantasy bubble Anon, you don't need to revise History to establish that!
"Even the poorest of the poor in our country has security and material wealth that most of the 3rd world cannot even conceive of. At least that my impression after travelling to 20+ countries."
And what has been the cause of the poverty in throse 20+ countries Anon?
If you're refering to anywhere in Africa or South East Asia or Central or South America or the Middle East then thanks for proving my point! We have pillaged the globe for our material wealth and our security, not opinion - Fact! And as another poster has noted, we could choose to be proud of our brutality, but lets just not be surprised when the immigration lines grow and the suicide bombers multiply. If we feel no moral outrage at our own brutality we surrender our right to be outraged at atrocities committed against us.
"And Imperialism is just as ripe now as it was 300 years ago, now perpetrated by the American Empire in the Middle East.."
True. What about the current Iranian imperialism which uses proxies such as Hezbollah and covert action through state agencies to undermine Sunni countries in the ME as well as assassinate political dissidents domestically and overseas?
What about Russian imperialism which seeks to undermine central asian republics not to mention wages war on countries such as Georgia as well as their own people in Checheya?
All your arguments are really a hatred of the west and this is the problem with your one-eyed version or morality since its nothing but a facade.
Here's the last word on your beloved multi-culturalism:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rape-impossible-in-marriage-says-muslim-cleric-2106161.html
Paul Henry was an obnoxious little jerk whose tripped up with his foot in his mouth.
And in our "free" land we now have people in black uniforms with guns kicking in the doors of its citizens.
I thought the old diggers fought two world wars to protect us from the men in black uniforms kicking in doors and dragging people away.
Anyway good riddance to bad rubbish with Henry.
Shame is he'll be back.
Isn't it great that you live in a western liberal democracy that allows you to express such views AAMC?
Isn't it sad that expressing those views in other cultures would get you imprisoned, tortured or executed AAMC?
Thats the point anon was making AAMC.
OK maybe the point that AAMC and assorted anon douches somehow don't get is that people are equal but culture/religions are not.
Hence it is not imcompatible to say that arabs are good people who believe in a barbaric and primitive religion which offends our (western) sensibilities because of its institutionalised discrimination of gays, women etc.
So what standard do we use to judge Islam, well obviously our own and why - because we value freedom of speech and individual autonomy which are directly contrary to Islamic values.
And as to the incessent whining about colonialism I say big fucking deal that was history. If we were living in 1854 it would be relevant but we're not so whatever your point is its really..pointless. If you want to condemn Anglo-saxon history for its history of bloodshed blah enslavery then you'll have to do the same with maori history but there is fuck all of that going on it's there.
I say stop the sense of self loathng and shame. Its pathetic.
"Isn't it great that you live in a western liberal democracy that allows you to express such views AAMC?"
Fuck me, another Fox news soundbite...hang on a minute...let me get out my banjo for some backing music before I read it again.
ding ding ding ding dinga-ding ding.
....I thank the lord Jesus every day for my freedom....unlike all those crazy-talking people from those other places
Anon 11.07, I agree, I oppose all abuse of power. Russian, Iranian, Israeli, American blah blah.... Tribalism leaves me cold, I'm a human!
"Isn't it sad that expressing those views in other cultures would get you imprisoned, tortured or executed AAMC?"
It is sad, and it's also sad that we cover those values at home but have a very recent and even current history of propping up regimes that torture and execute. Let's not forget Ronald Regans "Freedom Fighters" who are bogging America down in Afghanistan at present, Saddam Hussein or the Shah in Iran courtesy of BP's predecessor which resulted in the current regime. Dictators littered through Central and South America. We're not going back to the 1800's, it's all before us now. Human greed and an inability to learn the lesson of history as all of you Anon posters are so apt at illustrating. You've got your heads up your arses!
I'm sitting in Hong Kong airport at the moment, if only we could function as harmoniously in the real world as we do in these portals. I do regret however that I won't have the opportunity to rebut your red neck responses.
"we were happy, we had arguements, but don't we all."
Yes. But most people's arguments don't result in all-out warfare and ritualised cannibalism. The reason Maori gave the British such a good run for their money was that they had had about 800 years practice slaughtering each other, violence, slavery and war for resources was nothing new to them.
"Maori were perfectly happy before you fuckin white trash, pakeha, decided to colonise our fertile land
Full blooded Maori are you anon? And your fertile land - is that the same land that Maori deforested 40% of within 200 years of arriving? The same land that Maori slaughtered to extinction birds like the Moa?
I don't actually give a fuck that Maori did any of of that - it is utterly illogical and retarded to judge the actions of people hundreds of years ago by today's standards, let alone blame descendants for what their ancestors may or may not have done.
The way some of you clueless idiots seem to think that the world was some sort of merry, peaceful utopia before Europeans completely ruined it all is as laughable as it is naive.
No Hungry Bear, nobody has made reference to a past utopia, the suggestion is that we strive to learn from history so we don't continue to make the same mistakes. And I'm afraid not to acknowledge the havoc reaped both politically and environmentally at the hands of the developed world is the height of both ignorance and naivety. Checked out the cod and mackerel stocks around Europe recently? The fallout from Coltan mining in the Congo so you and I can have cheap mobile phones, the rate of species extinction, people starving while America pays farmers not to produce to artificially manipulate commodity prices in it's favor?
We are very lucky to live in the developed world, we have relative freedom and an enviable lifestyle, but at what cost?
"Why don't you tell us a little of the history of those countries preceeding colonisation, how they've been economic miracles and beacons of hope and tolerance to mankind."
Didn't the library's of Iraq save our philosophical writings and export them back to us once the Christians had stopped burning books. I think you'll find the had quite a few good ideas of their own also in mathematics and the sciences. Your view of Islam and the 'other' is of a faction of extreemists. Extremists who's opinion of us is formed by the perception that all in the West think like you, and therein lies the problem.
"Didn't the library's of Iraq save our philosophical writings and export them back to us once the Christians had stopped burning books. I think you'll find the had quite a few good ideas of their own also in mathematics and the sciences."
True enough but those past glories of Islam have merely demonstrated how far the ME has degenerated into a cesspool of superstitution, ignorance and intolerence.
Apart from our need for their oil the place is a social, cultural and technological backwater with nothing to offer the west.
Post a Comment
<< Home