This could be it. I know, there have been some idiotic ones in the past, real contenders. Lois Crimp's have always been in contention and there's a bloke in Mataura who writes truly daft ones, but this from M.K.Swanson of Winton takes the cake.
Second hand water
"So the Maori own the water.
Do you want to take delivery of it after I drink it, or before?"
(Modified on advice from Colin).
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
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14 comments:
If Key puts up water rights for sale, he's bound to confer with Maori first.
He's not bothering to do that.
Maori are requiring that he does.
I support their position.
I suspect I know M K Swanson,of Winton and if it is the person I think it is, he has a keen sense of humour and has triumphed over some cruel blows in life as well as encouraging folk in the skills of Micro-Light flying.
When I asked Bill English why sucessive Governments sucked up to the Maori folk , he replied they wouldn,t be in power if they didn't,
If one is going to write in a humouous vein, one should appreciate others attempts.
Well, Colin, I appreciate that Mr Swanson is a real person. There have been other letter writers 'from Winton' who have proved to be fictitious. I do appreciate Mr Swansons clever construction of ideas, it's true, and can see the humour in it, but for him to offer 'Maori' his urine, might be more insulting than the humour can cover. I suspect it is.
Bill English's response is interesting, but I can't credit him with saying that his party has 'sucked up' to Maori, I can only assume that is your phrase. In which case I have to ask you; do you believe that the various treaty deals that have been honoured to date, equate with 'sucking-up to Maori'?
Was that letter in the ST? Is that whole of it? I can't believe they published that :-(
Someone should write to the Editor asking if M.K. Swanson is a dairy cow. Who owns water again?
That's the whole thing, wildcrafty. I think it's very inappropriate. Maybe the meaning was missed, do you think?
Swished away your comment here as well, Anonymous, in response to your stupid comment on another thread. I'm happy to brush all of your words away, if you insist on being a fool. Quite happy in fact. It's fun, in a carefree kind of way.
Yes Robert, Bill English did not use the phrase "sucked up" but I was left in no doubt as to what he was saying.
With regard to politics my only claim to fame(or infamy) is that approx. 23 years ago, as a newly elected secretary of the Otama/ Waikaka National Party Branch, I was despatched to Dipton to take part in selecting a new National Paliamentary candidate for our electorate.
Sufficent to say"some seek greatness, others have it thrust upon them"
I would surmise that the Jury is still out on that.
Crikey, Colin! History in the making!
I can't level criticism that's due Bill, at you, yours was just a job, I suppose.Never-the-less, crikey Colin!
Sorry Robert,I missed answering your question "do you believe that the various treaty deals that have been honoured to date equate with sucking up to Maori.
A concise answer to that would have to be yes and as they say on TV Talent shows " you are through to the next round.
That seems to indicate, Colin, that you believe that Maori shouldn't rightly have those settlements they have so far received and shouldn't be awarded any more from this point on.
Am I close?
I wrote this some time ago but I think it puts Treaty settlements into perspective, especially if you have read Claudia Orange and know some of the history behind the claims (and it isn't all old history):
Waitangi Day brings out all those who suffer from Maori envy, people who see every Treaty settlement and claim as pure greed and a lucrative gravy train, and yet I would say it is Key’s mates, the business elite, who are on on a gravy train. More than half the the settlements for individual iwi were for smaller sums than what Andrew Farrier has earned as CEO of Fonterra and three of them for less than Tony Marryatt’s annual salary. The Government’s donation to the America’s Cup challenge was also bigger than most treaty settlements. It also cost us twice as much as all the treaty settlements together to bail out South Canterbury Finance (over $400 for every man, women and child in NZ).
Rather than attacking Maori I think we should be building alliances with them with the common objective of restricting asset sales. We have far more to worry about regarding losing our nation’s sovereignty over our land, water and core infrastructure then perceived treaty entitlements. Section 9 is a potentially useful measure to protect all New Zealanders from mass sell outs to overseas interests.
Robert, hopefully you will probably be aware of the many settlements representing Maori claims that have received top ups over the ensuring years and thanks to Sir? Douglas Graham of Lombard Insurance fame, are to receive inflation based top-ups for many years. We now have the situation were a list MP who represented many past Maori claims is now our Attorney General ,with the power to settle claims at his sole discretion.
As a friend of mine said recently " the problem with Maori is that they are all about "us' with no consideration for the rest of society.( one would have to include the Maorori and Moa in this.)
An other problem is that the settlements don't seem to have benefited the average Maori folk.
When it was suggested to one of the Maori tribes that some of their settlement money could be used to provide many of their undernourished children with breakfast before they went to school, the answer was no, that is the Governments responsibility.
The comment by M.K Swanson raises a good question as their is no doubt that a large amount of ” ------- in peoples pockets” takesk place and even though Bill English probably still doesn't thin so, corruption is rife in many facets of New Zealand.
It is hard to imagine progress or indeed the survival of NZ if we are not all one society.
Very good letter in today's paper from you, Colin. I'll come back to your comment here and your letter when I've done some of my day's tasks. I'll take you to task though :-)
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