Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Hick oii Reporting
I'm not sure if I'm missing the bigger picture here but in New Zealand today there has been a large demonstration in Auckland city in which an estimated 5000 people marched across the city's most prominent bridge.
They are marching because they are disgruntled with pending Government legislation that will see the foreshore and seabed owned by the crown and thus prevent the indigenous folk from possibly trying to claim it as theres alone.
The traditional march - known as a hikoi - was controversial with opposition MPs and local body politicians all throwing in their 2 cents worth. It is the first time since 1975 - another hikoi - that a protest group has been permitted to cross the bridge.
Now here is where I get confused. You would think the country's biggest newspaper the NZ Herald would shed some light on the situation and explain it, help put it into context for their readers, by talking and consulting to a wide array of sources.
But no, the Herald's take on this complex and historic event was that traffic would be snarled up as far Ellerslie or Penrose.
My colleagues who traversed the bridge at the same time this morning on unrelated matters said the traffic flow was in fact OK only slowed by motorists curiosity. Further the dick head who wrote yesterday's story, Bernard Orsman, obviously has never been on the Southern motorway as it is consistently blocked up far further back than Ellerslie/Penrose.
The paper's next concern was that the bridge was structually unsound to have "up to 1000 people marching over it." Newsflash dickheads in excess of 5000 people run over it every year as part of the Auckland BMW half marathon.
And to all you local redneck politicians who condemned the march - get fucked - what its OK for corporations to stop the flow of traffic over the habour bridge - albeit at 6am in the morning - but not OK for major demonstrations of national importance?
And thats all I've got to say about that.
They are marching because they are disgruntled with pending Government legislation that will see the foreshore and seabed owned by the crown and thus prevent the indigenous folk from possibly trying to claim it as theres alone.
The traditional march - known as a hikoi - was controversial with opposition MPs and local body politicians all throwing in their 2 cents worth. It is the first time since 1975 - another hikoi - that a protest group has been permitted to cross the bridge.
Now here is where I get confused. You would think the country's biggest newspaper the NZ Herald would shed some light on the situation and explain it, help put it into context for their readers, by talking and consulting to a wide array of sources.
But no, the Herald's take on this complex and historic event was that traffic would be snarled up as far Ellerslie or Penrose.
My colleagues who traversed the bridge at the same time this morning on unrelated matters said the traffic flow was in fact OK only slowed by motorists curiosity. Further the dick head who wrote yesterday's story, Bernard Orsman, obviously has never been on the Southern motorway as it is consistently blocked up far further back than Ellerslie/Penrose.
The paper's next concern was that the bridge was structually unsound to have "up to 1000 people marching over it." Newsflash dickheads in excess of 5000 people run over it every year as part of the Auckland BMW half marathon.
And to all you local redneck politicians who condemned the march - get fucked - what its OK for corporations to stop the flow of traffic over the habour bridge - albeit at 6am in the morning - but not OK for major demonstrations of national importance?
And thats all I've got to say about that.
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