D’Esterre – ” Maybe how women look is subliminally taken into account in the candidate selection process…”

Keats -“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Me- You may appreciate knowing that ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ was not initially well received by the critics… and perhaps unsurprisingly, if such are the thought processes which govern the selection of women candidates.

However it does explain the amazing, and often garish tops often worn by women in the NZ Parliament – I thought it was to catch the eye of the camera, but lordy – it looks like I missed the bigger picture.

Snow White: “….any random line-up of pollies suggests that we all vote blind-fold…”

From this vantage point in my life, it seems to me that it doesn’t matter how ugly men are, they can be politicians. But the same doesn’t seem to be true for women. Maybe how women look is subliminally taken into account in the candidate selection process, whereas physical appearance isn’t a metric for men at all. It’s the only way I can make sense of what I’ve seen over many years.

“….I think that he is neither good looking nor ugly, just smarmy.”

I think he may once have been easy on the eye, but time and tide (and expanding dimensions) have caught up with him.

“…Gareth Hughes is cute…”

Heh! Hughes has always looked to me like a sixth-former wagging school to play with the big kids.

Snow White: “This is nothing to do with, ‘haters’ or with race. It is to do with appropriate behaviour, and whether any man with an apparently puerile view of women is fit to represent us. Peeni Henare seems an ok normal sort of bloke.”

Agreed.

Its no good knowing what side of the political fence people sit on mary a when he (Henare) is sitting on the fence. He need to get his arrrrrse of that fence and do some work for his people that put him in there. If he doesn’t then he needs to be replaced and we need to put someone in who will. I haven’t seen any leadership from him yet he is representing a huge electoral area. Now in our culture if we follow tikanga our women might have been seen to be in the background but they were always telling our men what to do.( in their ear so to speak) We were very matriarchal not patriarchal even though to many Pakeha it might seem like that. Why do you think it has been our women that have come out and been forthright in many issues as of late. Surely I don’t need to give examples of this.

I don’t think we should be voting people in on their looks – and any random line-up of pollies suggests that we all vote blind-fold – but as a reasonably discerning woman, I certainly don’t think that Tamihere is a good looking man – with or without my spectacles on. I think that he is neither good looking nor ugly, just smarmy.

(James Shaw is good looking, and Gareth Hughes is cute, but alas, the Greens have blotted their copy book.)

D’Esterre – ‘Those of us with long memories can recall Tamihere’s characterisation of women as “front-bums”.’

Thanks. I didn’t dare raise that again, but when Tamihere sought the mayoralty of Auckland, there is no way I could accept women being expected to interact with a so-called dignitary, with such a schoolyard view of women and crude vocabulary.

If this is how Maori men hold their women in high esteem, then I suggest that their bar is set too low. If the Fletcher person who was his running mate found his woman-view acceptable, then I suggest that maybe her bar should be raised too.

Tamihere was also part of the disgraceful Roast Busters talk-back radio fiasco, where two middle-aged men asked a teenage girl, how old she was when she lost her virginity. I raised this re Willie Jackson when Labour canvassers phoned me prior to the last election, although I am not sure which of them it was.

This is nothing to do with, ‘haters’ or with race. It is to do with appropriate behaviour, and whether any man with an apparently puerile view of women is fit to represent us. Peeni Henare seems an ok normal sort of bloke.

She and Flavell then did all the hard work so that now Tamihere’s muscling in and standing for that party himself.

Just a tad hypocritical, don’t you think?

And, yes, saveNZ, he’s well under Boag’s thumb so nothing surer than he’ll swerve to the right sooner or later.

Tiger Mountain: “Class issues persist within Māoridom….”

At the time of first settlement, Maori society was tribal, with slaves and lower caste people, along with the elites from whom the leadership of tribes was drawn. In the scheme of things, that isn’t so long ago, and cultural practices can be very persistent and resistant to change.

It’s been clear for many years that lack of success in education, disproportionate numbers in prison, and poor health outcomes are to do with class. Poor, working class Maori are overrepresented in negative statistics, whereas the middle classes and the elites do as well as everybody else in NZ. Many of us know this perfectly well: we in the middle classes went to school and uni with middle class Maori. We work with them; they’ve married into our families, we’ve married into theirs.

In a piece on tribalism and democracy, Elizabeth Rata makes the following observation:

“One of the benefits of colonisation, and there are a number, is the destruction of tribalism. For slaves and lower caste people it was liberation. Of course the chiefly caste did not agree and today we see the resurgence of those who would be their inheritors. The new elite is a self-proclaimed aristocracy justifying their ambition in romantic appeals to an Arcadian past.”

https://www.nzcpr.com/democracy-and-tribalism/

The entire article is worth a read: I recommend it to you.

“The way forward for Māori as a whole is in unity with the Pākehā and migrant working class.”

Indeed. Though I’d extend that to unity with the rest of NZ society as a whole. This is a modern, secular, representative democracy; this is one of the reasons that we all rub along with as little conflict as we have. We’d like it to stay that way.

“A lot of the NZ economy sits on land stolen or acquired dubiously and people are in denial big time about that.”

Regarding this issue, there needs to be a good deal more honesty than I’ve seen in recent times. While there was large scale land alienation and confiscation by the government in the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was also land theft by Maori from other Maori prior to about the middle of the 19th century.

Unfortunately, nothing can be done about that now, without creating further injustices. All of that happened long before anyone now alive was born. In no modern society, are people required to pay the price for their ancestors’ crimes. Moreover – in the case of most pakeha and other more recent migrants – those crimes were committed by somebody else’s ancestors, not ours.

“John Tamihere at this stage of his career is on a right wing trajectory of “Māori branded capitalism will save you….”

My impression of Tamihere is that he doesn’t really have a coherent political philosophy: he says what he deems needful to get himself into the candidacy, then to get elected. I doubt that he cares too much which party he represents, just so long as he can get back into parliament. He’ll promise the earth, knowing full well that he could never deliver.

In all honesty Michelle, I can’t say Peeni Henare has achieved anything of note for Maori while in government, which is very disappointing.

That said, I believe Henare would still be a better choice of representative than John Tamihere, who in my personal opinion is a proven misogynist and untrustworthy. Facts being his crude, disrespectful comments about women’s genital anatomy, plus his choice of right wing mayoral deputy Christine Fletcher. Then wasn’t Michelle boag involved somewhere in Tamihere’s recent mayoral campaign? At least the electorate knows what side of the political fence Henare is coming from. His electorate needs to give Henare a good sharp reminder he is there to work for and get the best for Maori, and to get to it, or else.

I can’t see John Tamihere putting himself out too much for Maori somehow Michelle. Too much a “me” man for that.