Don Brash and Brian Edwards are complaining about the use of Te Reo on Radio NZs Morning Report.
This is Brian Edwards take…
…what the hell is their problem?
Honestly, if you feel alienated when you hear Māori being spoken, perhaps you need to reflect upon why that is.
I don’t listen to Morning Report after they defamed me in the 2014 election, so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but to me the use of Te Reo is inclusive and welcoming and unique. I can’t speak or understand much Māori at all but the immense pride I feel when my 7 year old daughter (who is in a Te Reo immersion class) speaks Māori fills me with an immense joy that makes me feel more like a New Zealander than anything else ever has.
Te Reo is a gift to New Zealand culture and promoting it and nurturing it is beautiful, if you honestly feel threatened by its use, that is a problem you have, it’s not a problem with actually doing it.
It seems deeply sad and ugly that a gift like Te Reo can be attacked in this manner, we are beyond this and all I hear in Brash and Edwards are the roar of tired dinosaurs who don’t appreciate they are extinct already.
It’s a complex issue and is probably evolving all the time.
I don’t speak maori either .
There was a time when I saw non Maori well educated privileged individuals seeming to ingratiate themselves into Maori society, learning the language fluently when most Maori did not . So and otherwise making out they were more Maori, doing more to serve Maori interests than Maori themselves. I don’t think this is appreciated by Maori. I always felt that behaving as a decent honourable European was what they would like.
It may be becoming more appropriate to become conversant with the language out of respect and acknowledgement , but I still don’t think us all pretending we are Maori too is what Maori want.
D J S
David, your comments are incorrect, it is heartening to see and hear so many non Maori making an effort to learn the second official language of this country. Most definitely long over due.
Fair enough MAAMA I’ll accept that.
David J S
I cannot make your comments out really. If you learn French are you pretending to be French. I would love to know the language but doubt my ability to learn it really unless I was immersed in it. It is a beautiful language and frankly I think everyone should be learning it from day one at primary school. I for one feel privileged to hear bits of it on the radio and feel my ear for the language has improved because of this. Good on everyone who has in the past learnt te reo or is currently doing so.
In the words of Brendan Behan, “fuck the begrudgers!”
Brilliant quote from Brendan Behan KROPOTKIN and so applicable to the decrepit fossil Brash.
The man is an idiot. As I texted to Kim
Hill this morning when Brash was airing his ignorance, the failed leader of a 0.1% party claimed to represent 98% of nzers. And he was Governor of the reserve bank. Good help us.
Also, he has “no idea” what Guyon is saying – in the age where information is embarrassingly easy to get, he still can’t be bothered finding out. The chief of “personal responsibility” uses the response, “why should I?”.
He honestly sees himself and his wants as superior, there’s no other possibility.
Is there an alternative RNZ station where the full
news can be spoken solely in English ?
I think English speakers, who pay taxes and support NZ staunchly, should have the right to listen to important news in the English language.
May I ask how many Languages you are thinking of making compulsory overall Martyn ? There could be quite a few contenders. A Tower of Babel collection ?
Eh?!
Radio NZ news is read out in english. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t be able to utilise the information for my stories.
Yes. RNZ. Only greetings are made in Maori. Your demand for ignorance is easily met.
Really! There are 3 languages for this country and all of them should be used and recognised. These are add-ons not the news itself spoken in te reo. Some of the comments on here I find deeply disturbing. Bring on te reo in primary school and continue learning it.
It is strange that Edwards and Brash choose to criticise National Radio for using their mass media for a purpose that is at worst harmless and at best highly beneficial to the nation as a whole yet they accept unquestioningly National Radio only getting pro Clinton/Democratic party spokespeople to report on the USA,and pro USA spokespeople to report on Syria, Ukraine, Libya , Russia, China, etc etc. With ignorant societal leaders like this NZ can soon look forward to being caught up WWIII at which point a morning greeting of Tena Koutou katoa will be the least of our worries.
US war propaganda is used by RNZ almost exclusively in news about the Middle East and Korea.
Meanwhile the 400 US missile bases around China is never mentioned.
Similarly with the bases around Russia
RNZ is under political control in spite of some good people working there who attempt to bring expert perspectives other than political ones.
Investigations and debates about 911 for example are forbidden since Kim Hill hosted Architects and Engineers for Truth’s spokes person who outlined simple physics considerations and evidence of the official story conflicting with the evidence.
No debate or reporting of both sides on this very important matter which was pivotal to millions dying and the middle East mess at present.
In general Maori are chuffed when they meet non Maori who either know The REO or are learning it or are appreciative of it. It’s been a fight to have it take center stage. When you lose the language you lose the culture.
Te Reo is part of what makes us unique as NZ’ers. Let’s embrace and treasure this. I wish I had the time and space to learn it better.
Ditto.
Dinosaurs they may well be but they have raised issues and are entitled to debate.
You ignore those issues at your peril as the American rednecks have demonstrated.
I nearly wet myself when Mr Brash then extended his argument to ”why not sign language as well?” – okay Don we will set you up with your own radio frequency and you can sign away. less dog whistle, more dead air
If RNZ is going to use Maori alone as the language of Greeting, as suggested by some commentators on this blog, then why by omission, leave out, Dutch, Afrikaans, Scottish, German, Arabic and a 100 plus other languages ?
Frank Macskcasy, Roy, and Michal – have one way and another advised me that there are three languages for New Zealand and three only.
quote Michal: “There are 3 languages for this country and all of them should be used and recognised. These are add-ons not the news itself spoken in te reo.” end quote.
Is New Zealand one country or not ? Should all the languages not of the “Three” be burned at the stake ?
Finally when did the People of New Zealand get the opportunity to decide which languages RNZ should be use?
It is great to hear Guy Espiner on RNZ speaking Maori reallly really fast
…it is inspirational
….and inspiring
….and makes Pakeha want to do the same (except silly old Brash and ilk…they are just jealous and Lazy)
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