The H bomb in Wanganui

[FROSTY:Me]

Christ what a fuss over the letter 'H'

Yeah I agree with you to a certain extent headbanger, certainly having Maori only seats in the supercity scares the shit out me. But lets get a grip placing the 'H' into Wanganui hardly rates a mention,

AHH SIR --- Here is the utter nub of NZ politics at its very best
Whilst the media is focussing the countrys attention on the whole H issue they are not paying attention to the Supercity.
Slide the important legislation by whilst the people are looking the other way.
So in a few weeks the country caves in over the H issue --meanwhile its too late re maori seats for the supercity.
Sleight of hand at its best

[SixPackBack]

AHH SIR --- Here is the utter nub of NZ politics at its very best
Whilst the media is focussing the countrys attention on the whole H issue they are not paying attention to the Supercity.
Slide the important legislation by whilst the people are looking the other way.
So in a few weeks the country caves in over the H issue --meanwhile its too late re maori seats for the supercity.
Sleight of hand at its best

You could well be right Tony. The only way I see Maori seats being acceptable on super city is with the inclusion of Chinese seats, Samoan seats, seats for the young, old, female, sick etc, etc......................It all starts getting a little silly!

[FROSTY:Me]

Actually-- I represent a minorory group
The White male car sales bike riding group.

[short-circuit]

Wrong wrong wrong. A language is unfortunately (speaking as a paid up member of BDOTGNZA) "owned" by everyone who speaks it and there's nothing any group can do to change that...the French have tried and are failing miserably...

This though, is about a name which is "owned" by those that live in the town that bears it. My personal feeling is that the story of how it got it's unusual spelling because of the way local Maori dialect sounded is an interesting historical quirk which makes the place stand out a bit...the rush by local Maori to be standardised will mean that eventually the pronunciation will change and that story will be lost and they will ultimately be the losers.

Please explain - you've just offered two contradictory positions

Just to add historical context - As was the experience of my Gaelic ancestors, Maori sustained an deliberate attempted extinction of their language through colonisation........need I continue?

[kneescraper]

Jesus and it carrys on. This thread is about as much use as a cock flavoured lolly pop....why do I even bother you ask....I like to argue.

The H only really came to the Maoris attention in the early 2000's, in 1864 I think it was the local Maoris got some arty farty person to paint a painting of the Wonganewee river, it was labeled with out the H. Now this is from the local true Maoris....if these modern half Maori mixes think they know more than their true blooded cuzzies they are in for a shock.

Point is, the public said no, they will use the word more than the 20 something % will, those ones will just call it their "pad cuz".

On the subject of Laws being a racist, I do follow the guy but dont agree with everything he has to say....BUT!!! The media (in all its corruptness) doesnt always portray people as they really are. Dont judge shit from the 6 oclock news, do some research people. Easy!

[Clockwork]

You could well be right Tony. The only way I see Maori seats being acceptable on super city is with the inclusion of Chinese seats, Samoan seats, seats for the young, old, female, sick etc, etc......................It all starts getting a little silly!

I reckon Maori Seats on the Auckland City Council are inevitable. Those requesting them will piss and moan long enough that they will be bought off to shut them up in just the same way as this W(h)anganui debate will end.

Maurice will side with the Maori Party on the Wanganui dispute to keep them sweet and to make up for not siding with them over the Supercity. Then whichever party needs the Maori Party after the next election will make that deal as and when neccessary.

The foreshore and seabed act will go this way too!

[kneescraper]

I wrote this a couple of pages back

Now every other Maoris going to get on the band wagon and start fucking up this country even more...what a waste of tax payers money.....truth is....the main % of race on the doll is Maori but yet they want to take up more money on these patetic, time wasting trips.

Now we have this guy up north wanting to rename the whole town with Maori names, we have other people coming out of the wood work wanting to rename things...this is going to cost the tax payer more than those stupid arse auckland roads. And what is the advantage of all this renaming....well....these bros are going to have to start up a gov' agentcy to handle all of this renaming...there will be a branch in every town to handle all of the "name changes" and will have to employee 100's of only Maori employee's which will swallow up millions of tax payers money each yeah.

Now I want to clear something up, SIXPACK..whatever the rest it, you gave me a red rep...cool..however how can YOU call me a racist when your downing every view that comes against the Maoris...arnt you also being a racsit agasnt the white folk? Contradiction my friend.

[wbks]

Please explain - you've just offered two contradictory positions

Just to add historical context - As was the experience of my Gaelic ancestors, Maori sustained an deliberate attempted extinction of their language through colonisation........need I continue?

Sure they did. But that effects the H in Wanganui, how?

But the H isn't the point, Hell if that's what the people wanted then I'd be more then happy with it,The point is the will of the people is being ignored, Effectively the people of Wanganui have been told they have no say over the town they live in. None.

Its a Maori issue, New Zealanders can just shut the fuck up

. What do you have to say about this? Practically the entire town has said what they want, but because a small group of Maori think they know best, 70% of the entire town has been told to STFU and is called racist or culturally insensitive if they don't agree.

[short-circuit]

Sure they did. But that effects the H in Wanganui, how?

Colonisation is about creating a dominant discourse/worldview.

Maori need to be the guardians of their own language - the fact that is was initially not a written language is irrelevant.

Whanganui might be a place where people live their lives, but is a Maori placename and a source of identity (within their worldview).

Their identity - they do the defining.

Pretty simple I would have thought

[wbks]

When you put it that way it sounds pretty reasonable. But as I understand it there was until recently, like English a few hundred years ago, no one set dialect or way of spelling certain words in Maori, so couldn't have Wanganui been a perfectly fine way of spelling it for the Maori in the area at the time? And there's nothing to say that the 30% odd for changing it are all Maori, or that the 70% wanting to keep it are "other".

[Headbanger]

Pretty simple I would have thought

Only from the view point that our brown skin brethren have more rights due to their race then all other New Zealanders.

Maori (though keep it in perspective its only a tiny tiny minority of maori who want the named changed,Mainly the political ones and the shit stirrers) are of course free to call any place anything they like, thats a big step away from renaming a town against the wishes of the people that live there.

[McJim]

I've changed my mind. Give it an 'H' to mimic the real way it is actually pronounced. Wanghanui. 'Nuf said. I will send a bill for $500,000 to the NZ Govt. as ethnic consultancy fees. After all, I grew up as a native in a land where no bugger could speak my ethnic language or probounce my ethnic placenames so I know what I'm talking about

[Flatcap]

After all, I grew up as a native in a land where no bugger could speak my ethnic language or probounce my ethnic placenames so I know what I'm talking about

What, like Dunedin, you mean?

[McJim]

What, like Dunedin, you mean?

I'm not mean ya racist bastard!

[Headbanger]

have a thui in Whanganui