I dropped the ball

The Jackal writes:

You might recall the hullabaloo around comments reportedly made by Hone Harawira regarding the death of Osama Bin-Laden. Well it turns out that he was misquoted, and the National Business Review article contained inaccuracies.

The initial NBR article created a veritable shit storm of further abusive reporting, bigoted blogs and racist comments, with many simply unable to control themselves. Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing any apologies for their misplaced accusations anytime soon... but here's a small sample of the idiotic right wing blogger's comments:

I must admit to taking part in the chorus of criticism directed at Hone (both here and on Radio New Zealand). And for that I apologise to you, the readers, and to Hone’s supporters who I know were a little gutted with my sloppy response. I try to uphold high standards of accuracy and fairness, but sometimes I shoot from the hip and get things wrong. Hopefully, it will not happen again.

For the best discussion on what actually happened and the agendas at play see this post from IrishBill at The Standard.   

Come on, Russell

I like Russell Norman, but I have to say he made an awful call re the Mana Party:

"I just don't think a lot of people are really hanging out for a Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford, John Minto, Annette Sykes kind of party ... They're looking for something progressive and forward-looking that actually is oriented to the current century rather than the last one."

This is impotent at best. The blogs have, quite rightfully, ripped Russell a new one. The above quote is, at best, superficial. It misreads the mood among the marginalised and it disregards the past. To quote Irishbill:

“We are refighting the 1980’s and the 1990’s. We’ve got a government comprised of a lot of the same people, with the same backers, running the same agendas and seeking the same outcomes”.

Russell is merely trying to secure his base. He does not want to bleed support, and fair enough, but attacking an ally is unjustified.

Jane Kelsey on Native Affairs and Operation 8

There have been two developments in the so called Urewera terror saga. Firstly, the Urewera 15 are seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. Secondly, a film chronicling and commenting on events since the raids in 2007 has opened in Auckland. The film is called Operation 8: Deep in the Forest and is directed by Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones.

On the first issue I recommend, in fact I urge you, to go watch Julian Wilcox’s interview with Professor Jane Kelsey on Native Affairs (episode 05/06). Prof. Kelsey is fiercely intelligent and sympathetic towards things Maori. I wish she was an MP – she’d be outstanding. In the interview Prof. Kelsey makes the pertinent point that the needs of the system are been put ahead of the rights of the accused. She goes on to discuss the advantages of a jury trail in this particular case as well as the personal effect the process is having and has had on the accused and their whanau. I thought she framed the issue better than anyone has so far.    

On the second issue I’ll point you to the Standard where Rocky has written an excellent review of the film. The post is fairly comprehensive and incredibly informative.

So go and watch the Jane Kelsey’s interview and read Rocky’s review. They put it far better than I ever could.