Reader photos

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, May 25th, 2009 - 30 comments
Categories: activism, auckland supercity, democracy under attack - Tags:

Thanks to a reader for sending in these photos from today’s hikoi:

hikoi500

hikoi2500

If anyone else has photos or youtube send them in and we’ll put them up.

30 comments on “Reader photos ”

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  1. uroskin 1
    25 May 2009 at 4:56 pm

    Focusing on the “lack” of Maori seats is a distraction as there are no Maori seats in our local councils anyway at the moment, and I would doubt a majority of voters would want them.
    The emphasis should be on the lack of democracy under the unified council proposal, not just for Maori but for everybody. The 20 councillors should be chosen from city-wide lists with a 5 per cent threshold. Plus the 20-30 community boards should get as much subsidiarity as possible, i.e. devolved powers that refer to their area, and let the Council deal with region-wide issues. Not difficult, really.

    • Ngaio 1.1
      25 May 2009 at 5:08 pm

      Iwi organised this hikoi so it’s natural the focus will be on the Maori seats. If people want to focus on other issues they should get themselves organised!

      • Zetetic 1.1.1
        25 May 2009 at 7:05 pm

        I bet they will too.

        This was the Maori seats day. There will be more protests over other aspects of the Supercity.

  2. lukas 2
    25 May 2009 at 5:20 pm

    Why are there school children there?

    • Sweetd 2.1
      25 May 2009 at 6:10 pm

      Lukas

      You assume they go to school.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.2
      26 May 2009 at 12:56 pm

      I’d say that they’re learning something important about how our society works and to stand up for what they believe in.

  3. mickysavage 3
    25 May 2009 at 5:37 pm

    lukas

    Taking a day off school to protest against the loss of local democracy is something I would be happy for my children to do.

    • lukas 3.1
      25 May 2009 at 8:39 pm

      That is probably why if you have children they will be as unsuccessful as you.

      • Pascal's bookie 3.1.1
        25 May 2009 at 8:52 pm

        Lordy, a fuckwit of the week and it’s only monday.

      • mickysavage 3.1.2
        25 May 2009 at 10:47 pm

        Lukas

        I have a university degree and I am a well paid professional. My wife has a university degree. My older two children are at university and my youngest is topping her class.

        And, gasp, we are all left wingers and environmentalists. And we all work for a variety of charities for, gasp, no money.

        Any other prejudices you care to display?

  4. Sweetd 4
    25 May 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Just heard Pita Sharples being interviewed by Larry Williams (5.20ish pm). Larry demolished all of Pita’s arguments for seats on the super city. If Pita can’t explain why they are needed, who can?

    ha ha captcha tearful critic

  5. mike 5
    25 May 2009 at 7:38 pm

    It worked for the Forshore protest (yes the one where clark called them all haters and wreckers) but too many mixed messages and not enough people – had a real rent-a-mob look to it. Fail

  6. Michael Over Here 6
    25 May 2009 at 7:50 pm

    I was at the hikoi today to stand by the Maori organizers. Everyone was smiles as we marched up the streets, we chatted and sang. It was a good day.

    I know that I wasn’t part of some rent-a-mob organization, just someone who happened to be downtown and was willing to take a couple of hours out of my day to stand in solidarity over the mess that is the Nat-Act Supercity.

    I hope that there are more protests, maybe some that focus on the anti-democratic elements of the Supercity’s instigation.

  7. Killinginthenameof 7
    25 May 2009 at 7:58 pm

    The rent-a-mob meme is well past its used by date. Can someone please point out to me where and for how much I can rent a mob for?

    • Pascal's bookie 7.1
      25 May 2009 at 8:31 pm

      Like the ‘mixed messages’ line, it’s a cookie cutter* dismissal.

      Which is ironic, given that that is what the complaint amounts to. Doubly ironic when used with the ‘haters and wreckers’ line, because if you read HC’s use of that in context, she was essentially saying that the F&S hikoi was the same old people doing the same old protest, ie rent-a-mob.

      The media coverage seemed to get the message clear enough, so I’m guessing that the ‘mixed messages’ trope is just more cookie cutting.

      If you want an actual example of mixed messages I heard Hide on checkpoint blathering about how he doesn’t think the protest was that meaningful, even though there may well end up being better Maori representation, but that he was opposed to that, talks were ongoing, he’s the minister but Key’s the PM.

      That to me looks like hikoi win. ACTy sulk.

      *df “Cookie cutter,” when used as an adjective, is defined as a “lack of originality or distinction” [1], a reference to the uniformity that results from the use of a cookie cutter.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_cutter

  8. Sweetd 8
    25 May 2009 at 8:04 pm

    Looks like you can get Shane Jones and Parekura Horomia for your mob if you buy them lunch.

    “MPs Shane Jones and Parekura Horomia attended the march but stopped off at McDonalds before carrying on their way.”

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2437819/Hikoi-protesters-gather-at-Aotea-Square

  9. Murray M 9
    25 May 2009 at 8:10 pm

    Why weren’t the children at school and the Maori at work?

  11. Murray M 11
    25 May 2009 at 8:18 pm

    “MPs Shane Jones and Parekura Horomia attended the march but stopped off at McDonalds before carrying on their way.’

    Probably to buy food vouchers to pay the rent-a-mob.
    I was under the impression KFC was a better bribe.

  12. Robert Winter 12
    25 May 2009 at 8:39 pm

    Experiencing the cynical dumping of the Royal Commission’s report, the gerrymandering of the Select Committee, the placing of Auckland’s short-term future in the hands of a beholden oligarchy, Banks’ expectation of 2700 or so redundancies amongst the Supercity’s staff, and the overweaning certainty of Mr. Hide’s progress, I have been pondering on what, for example, a French, or Ilalian, or Spanish, or pretty much anywhere else’s, take would be on such behaviours. It would, I think, have involved mass action such as we have seen today.The organisers of the hikoi are to be congratulated – for their actions, for smoking out Mr Key’s dismissal of democratic protest, and for showing the way to further protest.

  13. gobsmacked 13
    25 May 2009 at 8:42 pm

    More pictures of protesting children who should be in school:

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10431333

    (new instruction for all robots: delete “ordinary Kiwi mums and dads”, replace with “rent-a-mob”).

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