GUEST BLOG: Pat O’Dea – The Queen is dead. Imperialism should be
An uber rich old lady on the other side of the world dies and all other news is wiped from the main broadcast TV channels. The deaths in Pakistan from climate change, the deaths in Ukraine from Russian imperialism, all of a sudden are inconsequential.
News casters dress in black, even the sports news is silenced, the whole news hour is devoted fully to the death of one individual. I can remember no other tragedy where the whole news hour was devoted to one topic. Earthquakes and floods where thousands died never stopped reporting of the netball and cricket scores. Newscasters never dressed in black while reporting the murder of innocent children in the Uvalde school shooting or while showing us the images of the massacre of civilians in Bucha.
All our newscasters, broadcasters and reporters need to sober up and question themselves, how easily they have been manipulated by the the death of the British Monarch to openly fawn over the British Royal family, and by example manipulate others to do the same.
Because let us not forget that this old lady and her family are the representatives of one of the most brutal and murderous empires in human history, killing over 40 million human beings. Some slaughtered during her reign.
I have personal knowledge of one of those crimes. In high school our physed. instructor was ex-British army in Kenya.
One day sitting in the playground between classes, matter of factly related to us his participation in massacring a whole village and personally killing babies and children with a knife.
The crimes of the British Empire are so repugnant that the German Nazis used them in their propaganda to inflame the German people against the West, claiming that the new Germanic empire would be more humane. But all empires are genocidal and racist. Racism and genocide are at the very core of empire.
Our media representatives and political leaders instead of fawning and forelock tugging over the trappings of empire, need to condemn it.
The imperialist conquest and subjugation of other countries and peoples, always has been and still is, a bloody and racist business, and always will be until imperialism is ended and openly condemned by all.
Pat O’Dea is a trade unionist and human rights activist.
Indeed. An end to imperialist endeavors, like, our assistance to the Australians in spying on the East Timorese to take their oil, the massacres of countless Afghan civilians and freedom fighters against the American occupation, the support of the illegal American invasion and occupation of Iraq, support for the war against the civilians of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.. the list only goes on, and that’s just in the past twenty years.
…support for the war against the civilians of the Donetsk and Lugansk… by the Russian imperialists.
There you go Mo. Fixed it for you.
Hear hear! the fawning is revolting, all lining up to kiss Charles and Camilla’s rings. Could take weeks 🙁
Pat – did you really expect anything different?
Long live the King
I rather liked the Queen. Didn’t know she had been so busy.
QEII was politically neutral publicly, it was a mark of her reign. She didn’t order anyone’s death. Respect to her as a human being. KCIII not so much, he’ll be different, is past his prime and will struggle to relate to gen xyz. William will be a good king, prob sooner rather than later. The british monarchy has moved on from its past tyranny, a long time ago. They are just the face of British tourism now and the Brits LOVE them, for the most part. Can you imagine Britain without their royals? Neither can they. Even if the monarchy was dissolved and the commonwealth each became republics, it would make little difference to anything. The uber rich will still hold the power and rule the world. It is what it is.
Bit droll, cliche aren’t you Oh Dear? You could try to find goodness where it lies, trampled on and disregarded by many though it might be, Don’t dismiss and replace with some half-baked ideas that you have scooped up and thrown into a mix that will probably fail to rise, and if it does will almost surely leave a bad taste in the mouth.
Again with blaming QE II for all the problems in the world! Give me a break. I have got news, she wasn’t queen until 1952. As I said yesterday ( from an NZ point of view) at least she acknowledged the wrongs of the past and signed off on the first treaty settlement. Let’s face it there is a lot of New Zealanders who are way more imperialistic than she was. Ok that might have been out of necessity as the old British empire was gone but it doesn’t change the need for us to look ourselves before we park everything with the Royals.
It wasn’t just some rich old lady who died by the way. She was the most powerful person on the planet for the longest time in history. It’s a massive event that signals the death of an age, an era, a paradigm. There’s no underestimating the magnitude her death signifies. It’s an exciting time to alive to see the death throws of an era that now belongs to the past, and all the old ideals that die with it, to make way for the new. There’s no denying it is the biggest global news right now and will be for a while. Jmo. I still read other news, so keep keeping us informed please.
The new imperialism is the World Economic Forum. But you will be championing it, I bet. Sucking up and even believing all their PR, which is a front for global centralisation and control, the theft of all land and resource, and the end of democratic representation.
Pat O’dea, I remember your smile…
A “one topic” tragedy ? No. It seems to me that in this country, the 1951 Tangiwai Railway Disaster, consumed the media and the public in a grief more profound than the death of her majesty Queen Elizabeth.
It seems to me that Air New Zealand’s Mt Erebus disaster impacted just as greatly, and still does, as families continue live with the painful losses left in our daily lives, by the death of dearly loved whanau.
This is not the time to try to destroy or to distort or to obliterate our incredible shared history. Think Magna Carta, think Habeas Corpus. Think the abolition of the slavery which majorly pre-dates the Britain it is now wrongly attributed to for malevolent reasons. Think shared values which have stood the test of time, and which, from time to time we do see reflected in the institution and stability of the monarchy. Think that Pakeha have a culture too, a culture which we are entitled to own. Just think.
Oh boy, can’t wait for President Shipley!
kiwijoker. Splendid suggestion. President Shipley could bring the gravitas and decorum of a good woman whose value is above rubies. After all President Bill Clinton is said to have departed these shores declaring, “ I did not have sex with that woman” when Shipley previously ruled.
I see Seymour has said the Queen wouldn’t want us to have a holiday, now how does he know this. I believe the late Queen would want what the people want and would say its up to the individual countries to make this decision. And given his policy direction he would want us to dump the monarchy but he hasn’t got the guts to come out and say this, such a hypocrite this man.
I see Seymour has said the Queen wouldn’t want us to have a holiday, now how does he know this. I believe the late Queen would want what the people want and would say its up to the individual countries to make this decision. And given his policy direction he would want us to dump the monarchy but he hasn’t got the guts to come out and say this, such a hypocrite this man. Imperialism whether we like it or not was the ticket for many English, Irish and Scottish people coming here.
Nice response in return of this matter with reall
areguments annd explaining all aboyt that.
Drunk texting?