There are some situations so absurd that only humour can adequately capture their lunacy. Wellington city councillor Nikau Wi Neera, who was elected last year to represent the city's Maori ward, has filed a notice of motion calling on the council to mark Nakba Day – a commemoration of Palestinian displacement in 1948 – by officially recognising the state of Palestine and lighting up the Michael Fowler Centre in the colours of the Palestinian flag.
This is too out-there even for Wi Neera’s fellow Greenie and avowed Palestine supporter, mayor Tory Whanau, but that doesn’t mean the proposal is dead in the water. It will come before the full council next month, and there are enough ideological zealots (i.e. Tamatha Paul) and flakes (Iona Pannett, Rebecca Matthews) around the table to give it a reasonable chance of success. In the meantime, someone has wickedly spoofed it using a now-familiar meme from the movie Downfall, deftly skewering the council’s fatuous woke pretensions and neatly making the point that ordinary Wellingtonians probably have more pressing issues on their minds than Palestinian liberation.
ReplyDeleteI like the docu-drama on the link.
Accurately showing the wokeists as Nazi's.
True oppression can be garnered from the thought experiment of whether or not the Israelis would let the Palestineans express such notions of oppression.
ReplyDeleteBut in all seriousness, the Wellington City Council isn't a serious institution. It is effectively bankrupt given its cash flows, dominated by politically/ideologically selected Councillors and completely dysfunctional.
I would argue it is due to the immense size of the council. It covers too much land, too many people and is not effective as a representative body nor as a functional governance body.
By contrast, Upper Hutt City Council has had elected dictator for life Wayne Guppy for the last 24 years and runs very well, with positive books in spite of regional stagnancy. It is the only functional council in the district and also the only one not captured by institutional Labourites using it to advance into Parliament.
It's the best of those 'memes' I've seen in a while, now get digging and fix those pipes. It doesn't seem like the council will.
ReplyDeleteKen Maclaren
I have some sympathy for the Palestinians. But I think the city council is way off-beam over this.
ReplyDeleteThey have more important, local, matters to concern themselves with.
- Paul Corrigan
A very funny clip! Totally deflates the overblown egos of Wellington's Labour Greens clique. I love the line,"Wellington, City of broken pipes and public servants ". Somehow, they are a natural pairing.
ReplyDeleteLo and behold that a position based on identity has resulted in an activist filling the role.
ReplyDeleteNo public sector organisation should employ anyone in any position that is based on the concept of identify, especially any position that is charged with the remit of diversity, equity and inclusion.
These roles serve nothing but providing nut jobs with an opportunity to infiltrate organisations with their ideology. These roles add absolutely no value to any kind of organisation, whether public or private.
If commercial organisations wish to waste shareholder money on employing such rubbish positions, then that is their choice. But my tax dollars certainly shouldn’t be wasted on such.
Callum Davis: "Lo and behold that a position based on identity has resulted in an activist filling the role."
DeleteYes indeed. It was completely predictable.
A couple of nights ago, I went to a LTP meeting in our area. I asked a local Councillor about this story. His response was bracingly direct: it's virtue signalling BS, designed so that the proponents of it could stand on the steps of Parliament and say "See, we persuaded WCC to support this, now please nominate us for the Labour party list, or for an electoral seat!" If I remember rightly, he said that Rebecca Matthews is in support of it. Well: no surprises there.
Council wouldn't support that motion, would it? I asked, knowing that there's no stupidity to which the woke Councillors wouldn't descend. Oh no, he said. I hope he's correct.
Meantime, WCC is effectively bankrupt. It must stick to the essentials and start paying down debt. Some of us said as much to the planners, who were earnestly enjoining us to prioritise their pie-in-the-sky (and completely uncosted) proposals.
I don't hold out much hope that WCC will listen to us. Yes, we have independent Councillors who are waving the flag for restraint, but they are outvoted by the wokies. God defend us from Labour and the crazy Greens!
Wellington is hub of the self styled ''progressive'' forces.
ReplyDeleteThey/them would argue people there support they/them as they got voted in comfortably.
Sometimes towns or cities gain a reputation as pro this or that. Brighton in England, for example, has changed from a Tory inclined area 40 years ago to a Green, Gay trans, they/them stronghold, presumably attracting like minds to Brighton and its environs. It is a way to build influence and power.
At least its football team is having its best run ever. Must be a few bob around . - Paul Peters
Nikau Wi Neera is a young (23), willfully ignorant radical activist who got about 800 votes in the newly created Maori Ward last October, which was enough. In the general wards, successful candidates needed 4-5 times that. But that was the intention of the Labour/Green dominated council, create another seat that they would be sure to win.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of racism on both sides in the very long Jewish--Palestinian conflict, and as should be the case with Ukraine, NZ's official stance has been one of refusal to take sides. Instead the objective must be to come up with a durable peace treaty. It happened in Northern Ireland.