i bother because i care

A very insightful article by Chris Barton on Te Ururoa Flavell. I wondered why he can't see the truth in front of his eyes, why he stubbornly supported the lines, why he just dug in and turned his back - the interview illuminates those questions. 

NZH

He's frank, determined and clearly prepared to step up when needed. What's not so clear is whether, as in his student days, Flavell is misreading the political upheavals surrounding him.

That seems to sum it up for me - he is misreading the political upheavals surrounding him as he has done in the past and those past misreadings were big ones too - the Springbok Tour, 1975 land march and the 1977-78 Bastion Point occupation. I hope he reads the article and thinks deeply on it - he hopefully will have an epiphany of the real situation today and change his behaviour just as he did in the past.

If he was a slow learner in politics, "when the penny started to drop" Flavell took up the cause of Maori rights with vigour.

I don't blame him for getting it wrong sometimes - hell we all do. But the time for repeating past mistakes and not realising when he has it wrong again, has passed.