Radio NZ hacks go looking for Maori names on births list and – oh dear – see what they found!

Sorry, we can’t call him Alf…the regulations demand he be called Hone..

Dunno if we are supposed to feel guilty.

But the precious prats at Radio NZ, who relish showing off their Te Reo to an audience comprising many listeners with no inkling of what they are saying, now seems to be rebuking Kiwis for not thinking about indigenous options when they name their kids.

A news item today is headed “Parents overlook Maori names”.

More likely, parents didn’t overlook these names but preferred non-Maori names.

The news item kicks off with a chiding tone:

Maori names are noticeably absent from the top 100 baby names for 2014 with Anglo-Saxon and biblical names proving most popular.

 

Radio NZ enables Hone to reach a much bigger audience than the one he reached in Helensville

Radio NZ’s leftie leanings were on view – or rather, plainly heard – on Morning Report this morning.

That’s Alf’s judgement, anyway, and he will be sharing it with his mates at the Eketahuna Club tonight. He expects none will challenge this view, especially after he has offered to pay for the first three rounds.

In one item the Morning Report team was exposing us to the grizzles of Opposition politicians who were reported to be complaining that last night’s candidates’ meeting in the Prime Minister’s electorate of Helensville had been stacked against them.

Another item had Key’s opponents complaining that he broke the rules during the meeting.

Bill English has been talking – very quietly – with iwi leaders about the state assets they should buy

Bill English in secret talks with Maori leaders?

It looks like this may be so.

A constituent in a state of high dudgeon contacted the member for Eketahuna North this morning to demand a halt to asset sales, whether partly or otherwise.

Obviously this bugger upright citizen with a contrary viewpoint is a socialist. How he has been allowed to settle in Alf’s part of our community is a mystery.

Anyway, what got him going was something he heard on Radio NZ (and if Radio NZ is going to get Alf’s constituents in a state of high dudgeon, the response should be to add it to the list of state assets to be privatised).

What the constituent heard had something to do with a bunch of iwi leaders getting together to pool their money (and they have a fair wallop of the stuff, despite the impression of poverty given by health, education, housing and and crime statistics).

A lesson in cross-cultural communication from a feller called Hone – Heni Collins should take note

Alf learned one helluva good trick for dealing with radio interviewers today.

The trick is to follow up on the interviewer’s introduction by introducing yourself in a language only few listeners can understand, and then – this is the cream on top – to sing a song.

If the song is long enough, a politician could go on for a helluva long time.

Ah, but would Radio NZ let him get away with it?

Well, no, probably, not unless he had a bit of Maori blood pumping through his veins.

When it comes to rockin’, rollin’ and quakin’, Jerry Lee does it better than the Beach Boys

Alf has yet to grips with the extent of the damage done and harm caused by the Christchurch earthquake. But he has been listening to Radio NZ’s National station, which earlier this morning was doing a great job of reporting on the event.

For now, he will refer his constituents to a Homepaddock post, where Ele tells us how the the earth moved for her.

Out of the Hanover frying pan and into the Allied Farmers fire – it’s hard to avoid being burnt

Alf is siding with the critics who are lambasting Allied Farmers and the New Zealand Stock Exchange for the way Allied Farmers shares have been issued to former Hanover Finance investors.

However you look at it, one bunch of shareholders was given a big selling advantage over another bunch.

Alf is putting his money on the share price falling fast long before it rises again, as Hanover investors sell out in their desperate attempts to get their money back.

Hence those who were able to sell immediately have got a much better deal than is likely for those who can’t sell until the necessary paper work has been completed.

Despite the bleats of assurance from the company, there’s a bothersome smell about it.

NIWA curbs talk about the weather

Sounds like that Barmy Banana bloke – or one of the Fijian strongman’s henchmen – has taken over our National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The result is the muzzling of NIWA scientists, most obviously manifest in the sacking of well known climate scientist Jim Salinger.

The story has been nudged along by Green Party expressions of outrage, although – true to form – if the Greens have a hot flush, they turn up the heat to grab a more sizzling headline. They described Salinger as a Nobel Prize winner.

Bollocks. But more of that later.

LINZ closes its public counters

Richard Worth has missed out on a chance to issue a media statement. Probably, that’s because the news was bound to piss off some people.

And so it was left to his department, Land Information New Zealand, to announce (if that’s the word) the closing of its public counters and handle any squawks of protest from the public.

Some LINZ offices are being closed, too, and staff numbers reduced accordingly.

The LINZ statement announcing the closure is dated 23 February. The public counters were closed the same day.

Obviously the statement was released with no blasting of trumpets and the news media (according to Alf’s Google search this morning) did not hear of it – or if they did, they didn’t bother passing on the information.