To Be Or Not To Be...

So it is at least ironic in this fortnight of extraordinary convergences that Paul Henry's comments regarding the (ethnically Indian) Governor General "looking like a New Zealander" has been trumped by New Zealand Indians asking whether Jacinta Lal, Miss India New Zealand (Central) is Indian-looking enough!

I have to say on the day in question, I was not offended by Paul Henry's questioning.  It seemed to be he was being deliberately ironic - putting a patently absurd question that IS on the lips of the functionally racsist New Zealander, into the spotlight.  The reason I saw it this way was because on the same programme Henry was overtly supportive of another New Zealander who was in the spotlight for similar reasons.  This was the day that Irene van Dyk's appointment as Commonwealth flag bearer was being debated.  Henry was quite clear in his view that someone like Irene who had chosen New Zealand was surely to be even more admired than someone simply born into the privilege.

I simply assumed he was having a dig at those who question New Zealanders by immigration.

Anyways, he hasn't explained himself in that way, perhaps because in causing offence he simply wanted to apologise rather than explain himself.  Or maybe he is just a racsist?

For me, I am more dismayed at the wave of reaction - righteous anti racsism which erodes what I saw as an exercise of free speech albeit a provocative and satirical one.  How does a person lose their job for something like that?  Because of popular pressure and diplomatic pressure from one of the most rascist countries in the world (don't get me started on the caste system). 

Henry's biggest problem is sometimes he is just a bit too clever for his audience.  I am often criticised for using big words so I empathise and say "down with the thick"!  But then the whole media machine would creak to a halt so i guess that definitely probably might not happen...

No More Holidays

I have decided to never go on holiday again!  It is the devil.

How else to explain the chain of events and trips to the doctor?

It started 24 hours before we were due to leave - a regular activity at church helping with set up - the back starts to tighten...and tighten until...it doesn't work anymore.  I hobble home hoping that a cocktail of prayer and drugs will get me through 2 sermons!  It normally works for the listeners...

That night I wake with the chills and an apparent resurgence of the annoyingly persistent viral cough that has plagued me in recent weeks.  Panadol and suggestions from the other side of the bed that we will stay home produce a miracle cure (till I crash round 4pm the next day).

At the end of day 1 on holiday an innocent bruise turns out not to be a bruise at all...by day 2 I am at the Dr's in a foreign city receiving treatment for an outbreak of cellulitis the shape of Australia on my shin. 

I am popping 16 pills a day to enjoy any remaining semblance of holiday!

Needless to say I spent much of the week with my feet up being waited on by family and our splendid hosts...and it wasn't a terrible holiday, but REALLY!

Obama's Declaration

“I’m a Christian by choice,” the president said. “My family didn’t -- frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.”


The president said he “came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead -- being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.”

The president said “that’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith.”

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