Some advice for hone - shut up! Don't reply, don't argue, don't defend, don't do interviews, don't go on TV - just pull the truck over for a little rest. Go to the beach, grab your guitar, visit whanau - talk to your kaumatua. Build up strength, build up your courage, take a deep breath and then get on with the job! And the job is empowering maori.
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I quite like Hone. Sure he's a feisty man, but that's just him - he was once a famous Maori activist, and now his passionate personality has landed him in Parliament... you need passion to make in Parliament. It's a tough environment. It's very steeped in English tradition - highly competitive and stressful. Having said that, all MPs are treated like kings and queens in Parliament. They really are, it's as if they're in their very own kingdom and the civil servants are just that, civil and running around after MPs in true servant manner. These MPs perks have been a hot topic of discussion for years, the travel perks are just the tip of the iceberg! They get 'free' travel nationwide, a great salary, admin assistants (at least one), and that's all I can come up with, but there's much more.
One more point - this 'offensive'comment Hone made: White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit."
Um. Excuse me? Why is it offensive? Sure he swears, but White mofo have been doing this. I'm one, and even I know it. New Zealand was plain and simple colonised, with force, over the past two hundred years. Maori were hit for speaking Maori in schools and were forcibly removed from their land. And as for land managment ... we English are famous for our 'whip it into shape' ways. On most counts my ancestors had no idea how to sustainably manage the land for future generations. Look what's happening now as a result. I'm not saying Maori were perfect, they logged some land pre-european settlement, but I know Maori have a far more connected relationship with the earth than us Pakeha generally do.
Let him be, that Hone, you can't make a banana behave like an orange and nor will you ever make Hone behave like John Key.
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