Parker offends Mexico
April 23rd, 2012 at 3:15 pm by David FarrarRemember all the fuss over Gerry Brownlee offending Finland. Well I trust as much attention will be paid to David Parker offending Mexico. The Mexican Embassy has put out a release saying:
Is Mexico A Cigarette-Based Economy?
Following the recent comment made by Hon. David Parker about Labour’s concerns for New Zealand becoming ‘Australia’s Mexico’, the Mexican Ambassador, Mrs Leonora Rueda, has written a response to the MP noting that Mexico has been awarded the privilege of assuming the annual Presidency of the G20 this year not only because of its being the 14th largest economy in the world, but also through the good performance of its economy over the past 20 years.
Amongst other points, she notes that thanks to a highly developed infrastructure and a modern multimodal transportation system, including a vast network of commercial corridors, ports and airports, Mexico is one of the largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world.
FDI in Mexico is nowadays concentrated in high value-added products, such as the aerospace, telecommunications and biotechnology industries, which opens up careers in technology and creates specialised education and allows the integration of academies into the productive sector, thereby increasing research and development and productive chains based on the knowledge economy.
No visits to Mexico for Mr Parker. He will have to join Jeremy Clarkson on the “off-side” list.
April 23rd, 2012 at 3:31 pm
She makes no mention of their flourishing narcotics industry, how odd.
I imagine David Parker was actually making a comparison with Mexico of the late 80s/90s when American manufacturers were exporting jobs there to take advantage of low wages.
And DPF you know as well as I do that more attention should be paid to Gerry Brownlee’s comments as a) he is a government minister and b) his comments were a lot more offensive.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Should we hold our breath waiting for the likes of Martyn Bradbury, Idiot/Savant and the anonymous dudes at The Standard to variously call for Parker to apologise and/or resign? No; probably not; that would be expecting the Left to be consistent…
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 3:37 pm
The poor dear. Imagine having to lovingly defend Mexico when 34, 612 people have been killed from 2006 until January 2012, a toll higher than that in many ongoing civil wars. You couldn’t pay me enough to visit there right now.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Hasn’t NZ’s film industry already been referred to as like “Mexicans with cellphones”?
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Maybe New Zealand should be looking at the good points of Mexico and trying to emulate those, to get the higher value foreign investment.
Vote:It did have to start somewhere.
April 23rd, 2012 at 3:46 pm
We are all such tender flowers these days. Perhaps Wednesday would be a good time to reflect on what real outrage, cruelty, violence, insult etc actually look like. Thank goodness our dads didn’t fall to bits in tears.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Is Parker related to the Duke of Edinburgh by any chance?
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 3:57 pm
sal – we generally dont brag about the 200,000 shit bags we have on welfare when talking up our economy.. or the problem we have where a few maori babies get beaten to death every year.
but youre right, she should have gone for full disclosure.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Aus – NZ
Vote:USA – Mexico
The analogy is a reasonable one, and also ironic seeing that Fisher and Paykel already exported NZ and Aus jobs to Mexico.
April 23rd, 2012 at 4:10 pm
But Mexico is not Finland one of those special social democratic countries the Labour Party thinks is such a success.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Dime, that was a joke on my part, apologies it didn’t translate so well on paper.
You should also refrain from referring to people on welfare as shitbags. I won’t deny there are a few people taking the system for a ride but when I was on the dole last year for about three weeks, the vast majority of people I met were good people just needing a hand while they looked for a job.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:13 pm
voice of reason – gee, youre so… reasonable!
Parker said “we dont want to become ..” a derogatory statement.
Not great for diplomacy.
Mexico have come a long way and good for them. Im loving seeing the rise of asia and central/ south america..
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:15 pm
sal – 199,999 shit bags
i did knock off 100,000 or so for being genuine…
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Cheers Dime.
DP hits back with some stats:
However, Parker said his comment was a statement of fact, not a criticism of Mexico.
“In US dollars Mexico’s GDP per capital in 2010 was $12,991 compared to the United States $41,976. New Zealand’s was $25,600 compared to Australia’s $36,570.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:56 pm
The jobs being exported from Aussie will increase our GDP and therefore our GDP per capita. Parker and Labour have really jumped the shark if they think that opposing jobs coming to New Zealand is a good way to improve the economy.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 4:57 pm
of course we are mexico to australias’ united states…
..how can anyone argue against that fact..?
and seriously..!..it may be first-worldist…
..but a ‘mexican-economy’ has been a long-used metaphor..
..and he wasn’t talking about mexico..he was talking about nz..
..does that really need to be explained..?
phillip ure@whoar.co.nz
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Brownlee (unlike Parker) was shown to be completely wrong in everything he said about Finland.
The Mexican ambassador has e mailed a list of things that merely illustrate that Mexico, although still a shithole, has a couple of partially-redeeming features. Those hundreds of thousands of emigres have clearly got it all wrong.
On the other hand…
Australian “beer” / New Zealand beer
American “beer” / Mexican beer
Yes, I think we should definitely be aiming to be to Australia as Mexico is to the US…
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 5:39 pm
I don’t think it is much for either Australia or NZ to worry about. NZ doesn’t have the population to really exploit as a low wage economy situated next to Australia. Instead we are the land of milk and (manuka) honey.
What we should do is create a tax haven for foreigners (incl. Aussies & Chinese, & Mexicans & other people groups the Left seem to dislike) to park money here. Then we can use that money sloshing around in our banks to invest in start-ups and high tech industries. The volumes of cash kept here will overcome the low tax rates and we will win all round.
Surely Mr. Key has considered such a cunning plan?
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 5:44 pm
And you say Australia is doing well.
20 Countries with the World’s Largest Debt Ratio
18. Australia
Debt ratio (%) of GDP: 138.9%
Gross Debt Total: $ 1.23 trillion
Debt burden per capita: $ 57.641
http://businessnewsdaily.info/20-countries-with-the-worlds-largest-debt-ratio/2099/
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 5:51 pm
RPM just for you.
8. Finland
Vote:Debt ratio (%) of GDP: 271.5%
Total Gross Debt: $ 505.06 billion
Debt burden per capita: $ 96.197
April 23rd, 2012 at 6:42 pm
We are a lot like Mexico.
We also have a lot of brown people, who also wear silly hats and bask in the sun waiting for something useful to happen in their useless lives.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 6:52 pm
DPF: Well I trust as much attention will be paid to David Parker offending Mexico.
I’ll tune in to Campbell live to watch the fireworks! Yeah right.
Vote:April 23rd, 2012 at 7:15 pm
NZ would love to have this sort of Investment.
Vote:http://businessnewsdaily.info/nissan-will-spent-2-billion-in-mexico/2693/
April 23rd, 2012 at 9:58 pm
“I imagine David Parker was actually making a comparison with Mexico of the late 80s/90s when American manufacturers were exporting jobs there to take advantage of low wages.”
Oh you mean when they were about to experience growth of circa 4% a year for decade? Yeah it really sucks to have a richer, larger neighbour to integrate your economy with.
Vote:April 24th, 2012 at 1:55 am
Some people need to get out more. The market in Mexico is so important, Walmart is alleged to have used bribes to get a foothold.
Vote:April 24th, 2012 at 11:56 am
I agree with Parker. The thin skinned Ambassador should get real (also do something about all the drug killings and flood of illegals pouring into the US). As he points out here:
“What I said wasn’t a criticism of Mexico, it was a statement of fact. Mexico is a low wage economy relative to its neighbour, the United States, and despite the fact National promised the wage gap was going to close with Australia, it is now heading in the same direction [as Mexico].
He said the size difference between the economies of Mexico and the United States was similar to that of New Zealand and Australia. Mexico’s per capita GDP in 2010 was US$13,000 compared with the United States’ US$42,000. New Zealand was US$25,600 compared to Australia’s at US$36,500.
“It shouldn’t be offensive for Mexican officials to have that statement of fact pointed out. We are in some ways in a similar position – we are neighbouring countries and Labour certainly doesn’t want New Zealand to be a low-wage servicer of Australia.”
Vote:April 24th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
@ Bob R – Parker has broken WO’s Rules of Politics #1; when you’re explaining, you’re losing.
Vote: