no place for that

To be honest I'm not really a roller-derby fan and I can say I've never actually seen them do it apart from movies. Sure you have to skate well and be theatrical to succeed but I don't think having the words "Nigger please" on your shorts is acceptable. Some like Colonial Viper on The Standard have used the term to disparage the Maori Party

The Standard

Colonial Viper 22 March 2013 at 9:21 pm
Ahhhh did you hear the house niggers say something?

in an attempted same way as Hone did, but Hone was wrong and CV is wronger in using that term. 

So the latest use of the term has caused upset.

NZH

Cherry Carelse, manager of rival team Rock'n Roll Derby Circus, said she'd complained previously when the player wore the offending shorts.

"I saw a couple of families in the stand I was in get up and leave and overheard a 6-year-old girl asking her mother what a ni*** was," said Ms Carelse.

"Children look up to athletes and while roller derby may walk a fine line between appropriate behavourism with suggestive names and uniforms, no one can argue that the word has any place in sport or in public."

Another spectator, who asked not to be named, said she was "absolutely disgusted and outraged".

The classic is the offending person (and I am aware it was used on the shorts as some sort of homage to a band) who wrote on facebook that

The player did not return calls but said in a post on her Facebook page: "having a team of haters on me is kinda weird, but what is awesome about it is all the messages of support in my inbox this morning."

Oh dear the team of haters object to the use of a hateful term - funny that. The Human Rights Commission gets into it by saying

Human Rights Commission spokeswoman Vicki Hall said: "While the slogan may give offence to some, it is not clear that it breaches the Human Rights Act."

Yep you read it correctly - gives offence to 'some', my question is who are the people it doesn't give offence to? Are they part of the group being abused? Not likely.

Here's a hint - leave the term alone - pick another insult, another abusive term or even better use your brains and come up with something new and witty - but leave the racial insults where they belong, in the rubbish bin.

killing me softly with his song

This post covers a range of areas that are interrelated and they are: the adequacy of consultation with Māori and how the current system is another divide and conquer strategy from the Government with a direct whakapapa to past practices designed to alienate land from Māori. It also looks at the proposed exploration process for vast tracts of lands currently in process and adds in the massive job losses at Department of Conservation who manage one third of this country's land.

One very disturbing aspect of the recent Supreme Court decision dismissing the appeal on the Māori Councils bid to halt the sale of Mighty River Power was their acceptance that the Government had adequately consulted with Māori. The actual consultation process was woefully inadequate and a total smokescreen and it reminded me of the way previous Governments used to pretend that Māori were consulted with. The approach is a derivative of the divide and conquer ideal so loved by oppressive regimes and is still being used willy-nilly by the Government to advance its agenda to sell off and exploit the land..

Carwyn Jones wrote about the Supreme Court decision and said

I accept that the technical requirement of consultation may have been met, and therefore understand the Supreme Court’s decision on this point.  However, what this does suggest to me is that bare requirements of consultation are not likely to be of much help to Māori when it comes to issues such as this.

Recently Tangatawhenua.com has said this about the exploration permits to advance proposed mining of a very large area of land

Please panui far and wide, because if past or present ‘consultation’ is anything to go by the whanau, hapu and iwi probably won’t ever hear about it, it’ll be quiet meetings behind closed doors with Crown picked and preferred representatives

This proposed mining covers

permits to explore for metallic minerals over 8,261.09 sq km of prospective land in the Taupo Volcanic Zone in the central North Island.

The tract stretches from Lake Taupo to Tauranga, encompassing Tokoroa, and stopping just short of Whakatane.

"This process will ensure exploration permits are granted to the best operator(s) capable of delivering safe and environmentally responsible exploration programmes and will maximise the return to New Zealand from this valuable resource.

and they love putting in the consultation aspect

"At this stage, we are seeking input from iwi, hapū and councils in the area, to identify areas of particular sensitivity."

It is worth considering how the Government in the past alienated Māori land – this is one way they did it.

The Native Lands Act 1865 was a major mechanism used by the Government to alienate Māori lands but how did it actually work. The preamble gives a direct answer to the purposes of the Act where it says the Act was, “to encourage the extinction of such propriety customs and to provide for the conversion of such modes of ownership into titles derived from the Crown”. 

Section 48 barred all other interests in the land except those interests named in the title and this was devastating to the previous ownership model used by Māori. Section 23 authorised the Court to issue certificates of title but only 10 persons could be named and if the land did not exceed 5000 acres then the title could not be issued to a tribe, but in practice this issuing of 10 persons was applied to all blocks of land even if they exceeded 5000 acres. These 10 people had full legal authority as tenants in common which meant that if someone died their interests did not pass to their heirs but rather to the other co-owners of the land. 

So many hundreds of owners were cut out of their land by these provisions; they were alienated in favour of the 10 named persons. Furthermore only evidence presented in court was considered in any dispute over the ownership. Once notification was made interested parties had to be personally present to lay their evidence down and if they didn’t see the notice, were sick or unable to travel to the court, their rights, even though known by the judges, were discarded and not even considered. 

Often many presumptive owners did not even hear about the court date until after the period allowed for appeals had expired. 

Customary right-holders were forced into the Native Court Hearing if one of the 10 individual claimants created an application, other presumptive owners were not given notice, the Court refused to consider anything other than the evidence of those present at the hearing. The Treaty made rangatira absolute owners of their land and this Court process took away the trusteeship, kaitiakitanga role, and mana of those rangatira through legislation. The Crown had guaranteed those rights and the rights of thousands of Māori within the treaty and the Courts (as an extension of the Crown) had extinguished them.

The latest job cuts to the Department of Conservation are also related to this issue because one third of the land in this country is managed by them. The Green Party and Forest and Bird are rightly concerned about the biodiversity of our endemic species and they say

"With the department already pared to the bone these latest cuts will mean less protection of our special native plants and wildlife,"  Green Party conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage said.

"DOC manages more than a third of the land in New Zealand and the argument that volunteers and a few corporate sponsors will fill in the gaping hole these cuts and continued pressure on department spending create is nonsense.

"National is trying to turn DOC into a corporate entity focused on stakeholders and corporate sponsorship at the expense of its key role to to protect and preserve native plants and animals," Sage said.

More than 265 jobs have been cut from the Department since National took power. Ninety-six positions were cut in the last restructuring in 2012 alone.

John Key the Prime Minister says that DOC are overstaffed lol. He’s not interested in what the Auditor General recently said about DOC

The move came after a report from the Office of the Auditor General praised DOC's structure, saying regional staff were its biggest strength. It also warned of the risks of relying on commercial partnerships, as the department tries to shore up its coffers.

So we have a new land grab by the Government under the guise of exploration for minerals with a dubious consultation process with Māori and we have a reduction in Department of Conservation adequacy to protect our endemic species and the land they are charged with protecting. The exploitation and alienation of Māori and their land continues and the process is not dissimilar to the underhanded and dishonest way it was done in the past. 

welded to a stone, sinking

Pita Sharples is a leader who believes in going down with the ship but it is not his job to take the ship down just for hubris or ego. 

We have the potential 3-way leadership of the Maori Party debacle because Pita won't let go of the leadership or his seat in the house and now he has come out in support of Dame Susan Devoy as Race Relations Commissioner calling it "fantastic" and that was after Te Ururoa Flavell, one of the other potential co-leaders of the party, had raised concerns in parliament about that appointment.

Now both the other co-leaders of the Maori Party have tried to get Pita to bow out so that new people can come in and those calls are getting more direct.

NZH

Te Ururoa Flavell has suggested it is time for Dr Pita Sharples to stand aside for fresh blood to take over leadership of the Maori Party.

Mr Flavell told TVNZ's Q+A programme today that the party had to start thinking about a "succession plan" as far as its leaders were concerned.

but as stated in the article

Dr Sharples has rejected any suggestion he should step aside and previously said he will stay co-leader until he dies.

I used to admire Pita and defend him but I've said goodbye to those feelings and I wish Pita had taken my advice given so long ago, to retire with dignity and mana.

devoy - early bad-taste April Fools joke

So, Dame Susan Devoy has been appointed as this countries Race Relations Commissioner - my view is that this is a shocker but she takes up the role on 1 April so it could be an early April Fools joke - if so, ha bloody ha. 

Devoy is on record as saying that Waitangi Day should be ditched as our national day and that we should have a national day that we "shouldn't be ashamed of" - she has absolutely zero idea of the rights of tangata whenua and she is dangerous because she believes that her new role is, "to make it right for every New Zealander" and it isn't difficult because the issues are just like, "disability, gender or employment issues" and that the Human Rights commissioner looks after all that stuff. She has said it is not a very complicated job and that tells us more about her than anything - she does not get it and really why would she - a squash player who supported veitch the scum who kicks and breaks a woman's back, a person who thinks Waitangi Day is an excuse to sit in the sun and have a barbie. I hope Idiot/Savant is correct and that this appointment is unlawful and those responsible are held to account.

This is the way tangata whenua are treated in this country by the likes of devoy and her ilk - how long before the shit is shaken off and tangata whenua decide to take back their rights. Can't come soon enough for me.

Hattips - Kiwipolitico, Frog Blog, The Daily Blog, No Right Turn

get lost keylite

I've tried to keep out of the Labour Party infighting because, well I gave up on them long ago, but the news that their leader David Shearer 'forgot' he had over $50,000 in his bank account and 'forgot' to declare it is too much. Idiot/Savant says it so much better than i can

No Right Turn

Shearer clearly knows the rules around bank accounts, because he already declares one (a term deposit with Westpac). So he can't claim ignorance as a defence. If he deliberately tried to deceive the New Zealand public about his assets, then he's morally unfit to be leader of the Labour Party, or an MP for that matter. But even if we accept his excuse, and ascribe it to sheer forgetfulness (something which I think the New Zealand public would find extremely difficult to believe), then he's too incompetent for the job. 

Shearer is a total failure and will, if given the chance, lead the once great Labour Party to another dismal failure at the next election. He is not a left politician he is a keylite and he is a liability to true left thinking people. All of the tribal labour people need to wake up and seek another political party to support. I don't expect they will choose The Mana Party because, well it is too indigenous for them and their privilege but at least they should go with the Greens who for all of their faults at least are honest. This disclosure from shearer about his non-disclosure is the final nail in his coffin I hope.

underreported struggles 70 and 71

More essential underreported struggles from Ahni at Intercontinental Cry. 

Underreported struggles 70

The Triqui people of San Juan Copala reclaimed their long-held position in front of the Government Palace in Oaxaca City after being forcibly evicted by state and municipal police in December. The plantón (protest camp) was cleared, for the second time since 2011, to make way for the many tourists that would descend on Oaxaca during the Christmas period.

The Khoisan, Indigenous Peoples in South Africa, are opposing the government’s plan to build the country’s first nuclear power station on land that is culturally sensitive to the Khoisan. Eskom, an electricity public utility in South Africa that would build the power station, says that, as long as they build away from the coastline it won’t damage anything.

India’s Supreme Court finally banned all tourists from traveling along the Andaman Nicobar Trunk Road, a controversial highway that was used for over a decade to conduct “human safaris” on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The welcomed decision arrived one year after a reporter working for the Observer released a shocking video in which a group of Jarawa women and children were being forced to dance for tourists.

The Aotearoa Ainumosir Exchange successfully carried out a major online fundraiser, ensuring that a group of 7 Ainu youth, accompanied by 3 Ainu committee members and 3 interpreters, can study the various ambitious endeavors of the Maori people who have successfully revitalized their rights as indigenous people while living with strength in the society of New Zealand.

The Bribri recovered some 40 hectares of land in the community of Santa Elena de las Brisas in Costa Rica. According to National Indigenous Mesa Costa Rica (MNICR), the land was held illegally by non-Indians, who used it as pasture.

Underreported struggles 71

The Pit River Tribe unanimously affirmed a resolution opposing geothermal and other industrial developments in the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands of northeastern California . The resolution affirms that geothermal development would threaten the underlying aquifer and would result in the injection of toxins into the atmosphere and waters. The Tribal resolution calls upon the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service to reject all proposed geothermal development in the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.

Hickory Ground Tribal Town member, Wayland Gray, Muscogee-Creek, was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat for entering the construction site of the expansion of the Wind Creek Wetumpka Casino. Wayland, who was arrested with three others, entered the site to pray over the desecration of the grounds because it is where 57 ancestral remains were unceremoniously moved to make room for the casino expansion. Wayland has since been released form jail, however, the charge of uttering a terrorist threat remains.

Australia’s Federal Court affirmed that Fortescue Metals Group has an obligation to negotiate with the Yindjibarndi Peoples on matters concerning Yindjibarndi Country. The Mining company has continuously dismissed and attempted to undermine the credibility of the Yindjibarndi, even going so far as to manufacture consent for their Firetail mine by creating and funding a fake Yindjibarndi representative organization. The company have also surreptitiously destroyed Yindjibarndi sacred sites.

In an “unprecedented” ruling, all mining and exploration activities in 49,421 acres of territory belonging to indigenous Embera Katio communities were suspended for up to six months due to a failure to consult and protect the communities in the area. According to the presiding Judge, the six month period will give
the Embera some desperately needed security after being repeatedly attacked by outsiders, employees of the mining companies in the area. The six month term will also give the courts enough time to determine the legality of the Embera’s land titles.

A Malaysian state minister announced that the government will no longer pursue a set of twelve new hydro dams in Sarawak The Minister stated unequivocally that the government was backing off in response to widespread criticism, which has included several protests over the years by the Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak as well as environmentalists.

Approximately 450 Ch’ol women and men initiated a highway blockade to demonstrate that nearly two months into the administration of the new state government, “the communities and peoples continue to experience abandonment, misery, and looting.” They also denounced the government’s “National Crusade against hunger” as “a farce that seeks merely to share crumbs to our communities that experience poverty, while our natural resources are handed over to foreign firms for exploitation.”

Traditional Maya leaders in Belize reported that Texas-based US Capital Energy made numerous attempts to buy support for their oil drilling project on Maya lands including those inside the Sarstoon-Temash National Park in Southern Belize by infiltrating the Maya leaders’ traditional forms of governance. They declared that the company is blatantly undermining and disrespecting Indigenous governance, in violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Visit Intercontinental Cry to read about these issues and many others.

impact on frogs

1080 is a shit issue for sure – the possums have to go and the approved way is to poison. I can’t stand the fact that we are keeping that poison factory open in the US just for us and it just seems Kali Yuga-ish to save the environment by poisoning – yet the Northern Rata were so great this year, so beautiful and magnificent. This report disturbs me because of the statement from DOC

Stuff

But DOC spokesperson Rory Newsam said there had been a 1080 poison drop planned for months.
“There is a planned 1080 drop on Moehau, up on the Coromandel, but that’s been on the cards for a long time,” he said.
“That’s well-documented. We also don’t know if 1080 has any impact on the frogs.”

umm who cares if it is planned and what has that to do with anything – oh – costs etc
The impact on our endemic species of frogs isn’t known? I find this hard to believe – haven’t they sussed that out even a little?

Friends of the Earth New Zealand Director Tucker said in Hunua’s 1993 1080 drop, 50 per cent of the Hochstetter’s frogs disappeared from the main monitoring site.

Our frogs are so unique with no voice-box and no tadpole stage – we must save and protect them and we must ensure that what we are doing to save other species doesn’t adversely affect them – it is the minimum requirement.

divide and divide

Rio Tinto – Australia's biggest employer of indigenous people – no wonder walsh is smiling

Stuff

The spin

“We are not doing it to point-score and I am not doing it because of the competition. I am doing it because it makes good business sense and it is the right and proper thing to do,

The truth

Walsh says there is nothing contradictory about the need to slash costs inflated by the rising price of materials while expanding indigenous involvement; great synergies exist between both objectives.
“The truth is we are changing the nature of jobs, they are becoming more sophisticated, but we still need people to carry out maintenance and repairs.”

Smile why you destroy the earth, make money for yourself and your mates and oh, while you create a supply of people to carry out maintenance and repairs.