white and black trash

Some people are horrible and their views are so distasteful I wonder if they have any humanity at all. A case in point is John Hamilton in Arrowtown. They are thinking of building affordable housing in that town

Stuff

The Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust wants to build 10 rental houses on the council-owned Suffolk St site, which currently houses dilapidated cabins and the Arrowtown Rugby Club rooms. 

Over 250 people have made submissions on that and John Hamilton says

"We don't need white or black trash renting cheap houses in Arrowtown," he said.

"Arrowtown has a very low crime rate because poor people can't afford to live here."

People are trash in hamilton's view but don't worry he's not racist because both 'white' and 'black' people are equally trash, rubbish, thrown away and discarded. What a sad, sick individual hamilton is to have a view of people like that. He is the type that would let poor people die in the street and then complain they are making the place untidy. Personally I'd be quite happy if the hamiltons of this world left this country and never came back.

Luckily some good people live in Arrowtown too and their views are welcome

Jane Peasey said: "We all work extremely hard to live in this amazing place and I can't understand how people would want to take that opportunity away from equally hard working, though lesser paid, families."

Isn't that a contrast to the views of hamilton and doesn't his view contrast with the views and policy of the Mana Movement - a political group that cares about those who need help.

Mana in the house

The Mana Movement have released their housing policy to help Māori get into their own homes and it is a beauty. Only 45% of Māori own their own homes compared to 70% for pākehā and that inequity must be addressed. In an awesome speech, Mana candidate for the Ikaroa Rāwhiti by-election, Te Hamua Nikora outlined the reasons why this new initiative is needed and those reasons include the unaffordbility of current housing, the shortage of state housing and the fact of currently empty state houses. He talks about a new warrant of fitness for all state houses and the reasons why this is important - the major one being the health of occupants, as he says

Mana Housing Policy

It was actually the tuberculosis crisis in East Coast communities in 1935 that gave rise to the original Maori Affairs Housing scheme; it’s an absolute bloody disgrace that 80 years later Maori are facing another health crisis, rheumatic fever.

It is disgrace! So how does the new initiative work?

MANA wants to build 10,000 state houses a year, 500 immediately in Ikaroa Rawhiti, as a first step to ensuring that every whanau that needs a home can get one, either to rent or to own. 

MANA would run the scheme through a restructured Te Puni Kokiri, in the same way that Maori Affairs ran the scheme in the past. 

Government finance would come through Te Puni Kokiri, effectively cutting out banks and their mean-spirited attitude to Maori homeowners.

Only Maori first home owners would be able to apply.

There would be no deposit.

Interest rates would be no higher than the rates government pays on money it borrows.

Applicants can either build new or buy an existing property

Applicants will be able to negotiate mortgage arrangements that suit their circumstances.

MANA’s policy would fully restart Maori Trade Training in all the housing apprenticeships – carpentry, electrician, plumber, glazier, painting, roofing and drain-laying – and provide direct employment to hundreds of young Maori, reversing unemployment of 5,000 in Ikaroa Rawhiti and sending a positive message to those in Australia as well.

It is a win-win – our people get jobs building decent homes for our whanau.

This is a great policy and it is important that it is tied into Trade Training for Māori. Te Hamua then discusses the Labour policy and he doesn’t pull any punches on that one.

Labour’s plan to build 100,000 houses, mainly in Auckland, for $500,000, will do nothing for Maori home buyers in Ikaroa-Rawhiti.

But in truth, that has always been Labour’s way – to talk big about things Maori but to deliver little.

Labour talks about trade training, but it was Labour that ended the country’s most successful apprenticeship programme, the Maori Trade Training Scheme.

It was Labour that killed off the Maori Affairs Housing Scheme that had successfully housed tens of thousands of Maori families.

It was Labour that stole our rights to the foreshore and seabed. 

It was Labour that got rid of targeted funding for Maori.

It was Labour that launched the terrorist raids on the people of Tuhoe.

It was Labour who said that Maori don’t own the water.

The sad fact is that Labour has held the seat of Ikaroa-Rawhiti for 62 years and yet Maori employment, health, education, justice and housing have all suffered under their watch.

That is the truth about Labour – big talk but when you actually look at what they do sadly they are similar to National in outcomes for Māori. I have hope that Mana and Te Hamua will win the by-election and show Labour that words are worthless without action. This speech really showed that Te Hamua is a very very good candidate and deserves the seat.

Mana care about all people in this country and the final statement from Te Hamua confirms this

We know that housing is not just an issue that affects Maori; it affects every family on a low income. That’s why John Minto, will be announcing MANA’s wider housing policy on 23 July as a part of our MINTO FOR MAYOR Campaign.

The Mana Movement is growing - if you haven't joined get on board now and enjoy the ride from the beginning!!!

It was actually the tuberculosis crisis in East Coast communities in 1935 that gave rise to the original Maori Affairs Housing scheme; it’s an absolute bloody disgrace that 80 years later Maori are facing another health crisis, rheumatic fever. - See more at: http://mana.net.nz/2013/06/mana-housing-policy-announcement-for-maori-te-hamua-nikora-ikaroa-rawhiti-mana-candidate/#sthash.KGUXlzus.dpuf

It was actually the tuberculosis crisis in East Coast communities in 1935 that gave rise to the original Maori Affairs Housing scheme; it’s an absolute bloody disgrace that 80 years later Maori are facing another health crisis, rheumatic fever. - See more at: http://mana.net.nz/2013/06/mana-housing-policy-announcement-for-maori-te-hamua-nikora-ikaroa-rawhiti-mana-candidate/#sthash.KGUXlzus.dpuf

It was actually the tuberculosis crisis in East Coast communities in 1935 that gave rise to the original Maori Affairs Housing scheme; it’s an absolute bloody disgrace that 80 years later Maori are facing another health crisis, rheumatic fever. - See more at: http://mana.net.nz/2013/06/mana-housing-policy-announcement-for-maori-te-hamua-nikora-ikaroa-rawhiti-mana-candidate/#sthash.KGUXlzus.dpuf

Te Hamua Nikora

Te Hamua Nikora

Te Hamua Nikora

Ikaroa-Rawhiti

Ikaroa-Rawhiti

Ikaroa-Rawhiti

underreported struggles 74

More essential underreported struggles from Ahni at Intercontinental Cry. 

underreported struggles 74

Indigenous Peoples in southern Botswana breathed a sigh of relief after Botswana’s High Court suspended a planned community eviction by local authorities. The government alleged that the community, which lives in a so-called ‘Wildlife Corridor,’ is blocking the free movement of animals in the region. The High Court ruled that the eviction be suspended until at least mid-June, when the “San” Bushmen will be forced to return to court to defend their land.

The U.S. company Herakles Farms finally succumbed to local and international pressure, halting development of its 60,000 hectare palm oil plantation in the middle of the Cameroon rainforest. The move came just weeks after an order from the Forestry Ministry to cease ‘preparing land’ near its Talangaye palm oil nursery pending an assessment of the public usefulness of the project to the region. As noted on IC in 2011, the project threatened the ancestral lands and livelihoods of the Baka, Bakola, Bedzang and Bagyeli peoples.

The SAVE Rivers network along with 300 indigenous people from around Sarawak gathered in protest outside the Borneo Convention Center Kuching where the International Hydropower Association’s biennial congress was being held. The protesters–which included several community members affected by the Bengoh, Murum and Bakun dams–left peacefully after they managed to reach the main entrance of the BCCK and get their message across to IHA, Sarawak Energy and the Sarawak Government: that they are open to development, but not at the expense of their ancestral lands and their ways of life.

The Gwich’in Nation spoke out against Alaska’s Governor Parnell’s $50 million dollar drilling proposal on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a public statement, the Gwich’in explained that their way of life is “dependent upon the Porcupine (River) Caribou Herd whose birthing and nursery grounds are on the Coastal Plain.” The Gwich’in also observed that the Refuge is presently closed to any and all drilling “and it would take an act of Congress to open it.”

The Supreme Court of Canada, meanwhile, ruled that individual members of an Aboriginal community cannot use blockades or other so-called “self-help” remedies to address government breaches of law, specifically its duty to consult. The court was addressing a camp blockade that was set up in 2006 to interfere with a logging operation on Treaty 8 territory that was authorized by the Crown. According to the judge, the protesters, who claimed (but failed to “prove”) that there was no prior consultation, “should have” sought to address the license issued by the Crown, not the license holder (ie, the company benefiting from the Crown’s allegedly illegally issue of consent to harvest the traditional territory of Fort Nelson First Nation).

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

the terror of shearer

I have refrained from giving david shearer the leader of the Labour Party a hard time on this blog mainly because I figured labour would sort out the issues relating to him and his leadership of that political party. But his latest utterances leave me no choice. There is a by-election in the Māori electorate of Ikaroa-Rawhiti after well respected, Labour stalwart, Parekura Horomia died recently. The political parties contesting that seat are Labour, The Maori Party, The Green Party and The Mana Party. David shearer, on behalf of Labour, said on the opening of the campaign that they will make

Scoop

a promise that the party will use the next four weeks to honour the legacy of Parekura Horomia, and retain the seat he held for 14 years.

That is a good thing to say - to honour the legacy, but unfortunately shearer has not done that because within the same press release he also said

We will organise, mobilise and terrorise our political opponents.

Yep The Greens and Mana are political opponents that will be terrorised - forget that the main enemy is john key's national party, oh no for shearer The Greens and Mana are the enemies.

This word terrorise was deliberate and designed to send a message and that message was not lost on the Mana candidate for the seat, Te Hamua Nikora

Scoop

Te Hamua Nikora is stunned by Labour’s plan to win the electorate.

And why was this such a shocker by shearer

Nikora said that to hear that message from Labour on a day like today when Tuhoe are settling with the Crown is in extremely poor taste. “Tuhoe haven’t forgotten that it was a Labour Government that raided their homes in Taneatua and Ruatoki in 2007. Tuhoe know that the call to raid their homes by our police came from Labour. It’s another sad legacy on the part of the Labour Party when it comes to Maori rights”.

Yep Tuhoe settled officially with the Crown yesterday, the same day shearer made his statement. Tuhoe receive putea of 170M and most importantly an apology for the following

TVNZ

Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson said the "past breaches against Tuhoe are some of the worst in the story of our nation".

"Land was confiscated; villages and crops burned; families killed and men executed," said Finlayson.

"The relationship with their homeland whittled away despite promises. These sorry events have left a stain on the history of Te Urewera region, and on the history of the Crown in New Zealand.

"Today we address squarely that history, which has remained ever present in Te Urewera to this day."

The Crown admitted that over a hundred year period it:

- Confiscated the best land
- Carried out "unjust" land sales
- Undertook a brutal military campaign that has been described in a contemporary account as "extermination"

 Tuhoe also have negotiated some awesome concessions

TVNZ

The settlement will see iwi co-manage Te Urewera National Park with the Government, and in five years it will negotiate to have Mana Motuhake, or self-rule, which means more control over education, health and housing services in the area.

A great day for Tuhoe and it is such a pity that people like shearer have zero idea of the significance of what has occurred for that Iwi and what this settlement means to them. That is why this call to terrorise opponents is so distasteful and so wrong - it is a slap in the face to all Māori and a disgraceful way to honour the memory of Parekura Horomia. The use of the word terrorise is another example of why david shearer is not fit to be in parliament let alone lead a political party - he is the weakest link in our struggle to remove the government of john key and all of their destructive practices.