"The audience tell us over and over again that one of the things they love about Paul Henry is that he's prepared to say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud,"And what are these things that paul henry can say out loud that the rest of us think?
"On the Breakfast programme this morning Henry asked the Prime Minister about who he was looking to replace Sir Anand with when his five year term ends this year.
"Is he (Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand ) even a New Zealander?" Henry asked.
Mr Key said he was.
"Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time... Are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?"Just to clarify
"Sir Anand is New Zealand's first Governor-General of Indian and Pacific ancestry. He had a lengthy career as a lawyer, judge and ombudsman before taking up the job in August 2006.
He was born and raised in Auckland, attending Richmond Road School in Ponsonby, and Sacred Heart College in Glen Innes. His parents were born in Fiji and migrated to New Zealand, his grandparents were born in India and had migrated to Fiji.Now I'm not a great fan of the queen but this is just minimum standards of behaviour - I would be equally horrified if he said it about anyone.
Are these really the views of the silent people of this country? No doubt some will applaud henry for his courage in speaking his truth - but I've never seen a bigger coward, a weak racist so insecure that he had become a joke - and not a funny one. But this 'joke' reflects back a side of ourselves that often remains hidden - even flies have their uses.
10 comments:
I used to think Paul Henry was just a moron. Now I think he's a symptom of a much larger problem.
Sadly he probably does represent a "silent" group of people (not sure if majority is the right word or not) who have nothing better to do with their time than watch him on TV.
Well at the very least, it looks as if Ben Gracewood (the tech commentator) has this-morning quit the show in disgust of working with Paul Henry.
Ugly, ugly man that Paul Henry (but he makes us laugh tee hee, tee hee).
I have seen him only once or twice around the time the Ackland Harbour bridge was 'invaded' by New Zealanders who wanted to walk and cycle across to celebrtate ..something or other.. he was so offensive then that I haven't bothered to look again but this one just consolidates my view of him and his followers. I see he's apologised and will no doubt be lauded as someone who 'speaks the truth, says the things we are all thinking deep down' - sick man, sick society.
The disturbing thing is that he does seem to speak what quite a lot of people think. Whenever he does it brings divisive, polarasing ugly stuff that many wouldn't want to admit about New Zealand out into the open.
'Racist' is a powerful (and overused) word, and people will usually rationalise their behaviour through something other than discriminating because of race. Nearly everyone will take extreme offence if they're called a racist, which is why things will get increasingly ugly the more that this stuff is provoked in public forums by Mr Henry and others like him.
New Zealand's not as advanced and out there with its race relations as many would like to believe.
Good points and the true lack of quality from key shown by not even having the guts to front him - what an loser.
Danyl has some more good points about the apology over here.
Paul Henry is a boor. If the silent majority agree with him over anything, it says a lot about the moral fibre of this country. However, as this country has many, many people of colour, I suspect that he is referring to people of HIS colour / ethnicity only, at least, I hope he is.
Paul Henry is the reaon I no longer watch TVNZ in the mornings. I cannot imagine any guest of his having sufficient pulling power to entice me into seeing Mr Snide ever again
Well I did enjoy his award acceptance speech - because the supposed fan letter he read out was fairly accurate - as for his comments today - he could only be referring to someone of his own colour- for he himself - Mr Henry was not born here - does he suggest the same for tv presenters? - unlikely as he himself would be gone- the man simply has no class - and unfortunately lacks any social intelligence and unfortunately his immaturity mixed with a supposed delightful humour seems to be enough to create a personality that many people are happy to be entertained by - so rather than be entertained by someone with some substance without being racist - who could still be funny -the tv producers stick with him - sad that he is forgiven continually because the man has a little humour. He is a grown man - not a child who needs to learn - he knows whats right and wrong - he just doesn't care.
He's a smart guy, no doubt about it. He doesn't say all this provocative stuff for no reason. He also couldn't get away with it if his audience that drives the ratings didn't already have the sorts of opinions he provokes.
No doubt some people see it as a big joke and think the targets of Paul Henry's attacks should just harden up and let it run off them while others have a good chuckle. Other people probably actually believe it, and see his stuff as reinforcement of whatever their beliefs already were beforehand. Both of these make the entire thing very sad and disturbing.
I'm guessing Paul himself falls into the first group where he says things to get attention and a cheap laugh without caring too much about the targets. (He probably thinks it's their own problem if they don't see the world like he does.) He probably doesn't care about the second group and is just happy to bring them along. It's not as if they'd be any different without him.
I don't like seeing Paul Henry on TV, but simply censoring him or kicking him off the tele is not going to solve an underlying and much more serious problem.
Mike - booting him off the telly for a couple of weeks won't solve any deeper issues in our society, but it does feel good to see him get a slap-down.
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