Roger Douglas may be the best-ever economist to have ever entered a parliament, anywhere on Earth.
Don Brash will be New Zealand's next Prime Minister.
If the New Zealand people and the New Commonwealth of the [Escaped-ANZUS] English-Speaking Peoples and its only worthy ally, Israel and the Judeo-Christian/Western Civilization we vanguard are really blessed, Rodney Hide will be his Deputy.
And the "Maori/Pakeha problem" is being solved -- even as we speak -- in the bedrooms of Island Bay's, Bendigo's, Bowral's Bondi Beach's, Brizzie's, Broadbeach's and Balina's boutique bed and breakfasts!
Blessings -- Brian
BUMPping
excellent posts *LOL*
I second cyborg's comment: I think Mr Douglas's speech ought to be compulsory read by all US Democrats as his prescription of alleviating social problems among the Maori people applies equally well to African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. Moreover, he was a former committed socialist and card-carrying member of the Socialist International, something which even Barbara Lee cannot boast about. (I need to add something that may sound offensive to some American conservatives. I know a lot of you are wary of Hillary Clinton's policies: me too, but I admit she is not as left as we often make her out to be - she is no Helen Clark or Lionel Jospin. Remember she is a hawk on terrorism - something which definitely put her out of the left by Western European standards)
Roger really has a fantastic mind. If only we had more politicians like him.
Don Brash is the one thing that will inspire me to vote for National, rather than Act, at the next election (I'm still allowed to vote even though I am in the mother country now - hooray!)
Act seems to have been getting itself into all sorts of trouble recently - and I'm not just talking about Donna. The leadership thing has caused them to lack a bit of coherency and momentum when it comes to their policies. The best thing that could happen to Act at the moment is for National to win the next election and make Act its coalition partner. Much better chance of that happening with Brash as leader than Bill.
As for the Maori thing, I wish that more Maori would realise that theirs is a culture that most NZers cherish.
I was home from work for 3 days last week on study leave (I have to sit a qualified lawyers transfer test to qualify as an English solicitor). I live next to a primary school. On Wednesday afternoon, I thought I was going through a bit of a homesick phase because I could hear the haka. Eventually I realised that actually I could hear the haka - I looked out the window and the hall of the primary school was full of kids doing the haka. I got all misty-eyed. The same thing happened on Thursday and on Friday, just before my exam, strains of Tu tira mai nga iwi drifted through the window. These small children, at a primary school in Islington (not your most affluent London suburb, unless you count Tony Blair, and he sends his kids elsewhere to school) were learning our culture.
It binds us and identifies us as kiwis everywhere. I went to watch the rugby sevens at Twickenham a month or so ago and some english blokes were giving me a rough time about the number of Islanders on the team ("you guys have to import your players from the island colonies"). I told him that, while some of them may not have been born in NZ, NZ was the largest of the pacific islands and was full of islanders - it's part of our culture, and not just Maori.
There are bad sorts all over the world. Crime is not a matter of skin colour, nor is poverty. Perhaps if the lefty activists stopped rubbing statistics in every Maori's face that said "you are more likely than your white neighbour to commit a crime, be a teenage pregnancy statistic, whatever", then maybe they will fight harder to get out of the stereotype, rather than accept it as something they can't prevent.
Oh dear, I have ranted a bit - sorry all!
Long live Roger.