Kiwiblog

I read this exchange in the Herald:

White-haired Mt Albert pharmacist David Baird met his first living, breathing politician yesterday – and gave her an earful.

“Hi, I’m Melissa Lee, National candidate for Mt Albert,” said the politician.

“Well you won’t be getting my vote because I don’t think we need any Asians in Parliament,” the pharmacist shot back tartly.

Or Jews. We don’t need any Jews either.

Korean-born Ms Lee, a former journalist who has been in New Zealand for 21 years, asked brightly, “Why not?”

Mr Baird said he had his reasons. “They are very difficult people to deal with. They don’t spend any money. I don’t see that they bring any money into the country. Another problem is their English is very bad.

Good on Melissa for not taking offence. Not sure I would have been as reasonable.

As I read this, I thought to myself that this guy sounds like a NZ First voter. And later on we read:

Mr Baird voted NZ First last year and has not decided whom to support in the June 13 byelection, caused by Helen Clark’s departure to the United Nations.

Will NZ First stand a candidate? If so, who will they take votes off?

And a Pakeha mother who declined to be named turned out to be as “red” as Mr Baird’s wife. Her simple verdict: “I’m going to vote for him – he’s the right colour.”

So is she voting Shearer because Labour is “red” or is she voting Shearer because he is white?

The ODT reports further on the controversy over the Invercargill cafe that refused to serve two women of Israeli origin.

“Mrs Bennie, of Makarewa, a New Zealand citizen who has lived here for seven years including five years in Waikouaiti, said she was shocked when she and her sister, visiting from Israel, were told to leave the cafe.

“I felt the kind of racism people were exposed to in the 1940s and ’50s,” she said.

I didn’t catch on to this detail yesterday, but one of the sisters is a NZ citizen. So those who tried to excuse the action as not being racist because it was about nationality not ethnicity are wrong. Her nationality is New Zealand.She basically got refused because she was Jewish. Does anyone think an Israeli Arab would have been refused service?

Big kudos though to Javed Khan, President of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand who said:

“I can understand where they are coming from,” FIANZ president Javed Khan said.

“But if their action constitutes a breach of the Human Rights Act . . . then we shouldn’t breach the law of the country.

Also pleasing:

Dunedin Turkish cafe owners are not taking the same stance as Mr Tekinkaya.

Galata Turkish Cafe owner Ali Akman, himself a Turkish Muslim, said he believed what the Invercargill restaurateurs had done was wrong.

“He shouldn’t have. Any food premises is for eating and having fun. It is not for political discussions or arguments. This is wrong.”

He hoped the incident would not reflect badly on the Turkish community.

Ozan Turkish Cafe owner Murat Bay also feared the effect the incident would have on people’s view of the Turkish community.

He did not think the same would happen in any of Dunedin’s Turkish restaurants.

“We do not have such fanatics here.”

And here is the final irony:

“Obviously, he doesn’t like Israel, and I don’t blame him. I’m not a big supporter of Israel at the moment.

But he didn’t even bother finding out what my opinion was,” she said.

Mrs Bennie worked at Turkish restaurant Paasha while studying at the University of Otago. She missed Dunedin culture.

It was a “bit more tolerant” than Invercargill, she said.

So this cafe banned a NZ citizen who actually agrees with him, in relation to the Gaza conflict it seems. But hey she speaks Hebrew so she gets banned.

The Southland Times reports:

Two women were shocked after being kicked out of an Invercargill cafe yesterday because they come from Israel.

Sisters Natalie Bennie and Tamara Shefa were upset after being booted out of the Mevlana Cafe in Esk St by owner Mustafa Tekinkaya.

They chose to eat at Mevlana Cafe because it had a play area for Mrs Bennie’s two children, but they were told to leave before they had ordered any food, Mrs Bennie said.

“He heard us speaking Hebrew and he asked us where we were from. I said Israel and he said `get out, I am not serving you’. It was shocking.”

Mr Tekinkaya, who is Muslim and from Turkey, said he was making his own protest against Israel because it was killing innocent babies and women in the Gaza Strip.

“I have decided as a protest not to serve Israelis until the war stops.”

He said he had nothing against Israeli people but if any more came into his shop they would also be told to leave, and he was not concerned if he lost business.

I wonder if he would refuse to serve Israeli Arabs?

I wonder how he would like it if a shop refused to serve Turks until Turkey apologises for the Armenian genocide (or even accepts ot happened) or if after 9/11 a shop refused to serve Muslims because the 9/11 hijackers were Muslim?

It is absolutely legitimate to protest against the Israeli Government if you disagree with what they do. But it is quite wrong to target individual citizens.

I thought it would be interesting to see what the most well known political blogs have said on Peter Brown’s atrocious attacks on Asian immigrants.

1. Kiwiblog – criticised hypocritical Brown
2. Public Address – no comment
3. Whale Oil – calls him hypocritical racist
4. No Right Turn – vile rhetoric
5. Not PC – labels Brown a bigot
6. Frog Blog – no comment
7. The Standard – calls him racist and links to excellent Campbell Live interview
8. Kiwiblogblog – no comment
9. The Hive – calls it despicable
10. Tumeke – Bomber covers issue, negative on Brown

Good to see The Standard joining No Right Turn in attacking Brown, despite Brown’s party supporting the Government on supply and confidence.

People have been expecting NZ First to start bashing Asian immigrants for months, to try and lift their poll ratings like it did in 1996. Peter Brown’s outburst yesterday was not him just thinking aloud, but part of a planned strategy. It had to fall to him, as Winston being Foreign Minister can’t do it directly.  He is now refusing to comment on his own Deputy Leader’s comments.

The EMA Northern have condemned (hat tip: The Hive) NZ First and Brown:

Comments by New Zealand First MP Peter Brown are racial stereotyping of the worst sort, says Alasdair Thompson, chief executive of the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern).

“It was post war migrants like Mr Brown who brought here the bigotry of the British class system and a rabid form of unionism,” Mr Thompson said.

“Mr Brown should stop being hypocritical.

And the Auckland Chamber of Commerce weighs in:

“Asian New Zealanders, and those overseas, should see this for what it is: a pathetic piece of political posturing by a minority party.

Hon Chris Carter:

 ”I think he’s absolutely being racist,” Carter said. “He shouldn’t be condemning people because of their race or culture.”

Hon Clayton Cosgrove:

 Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove told NZPA Mr Brown’s comments were ironic, given that he was a “native born British chap”.

He hoped Mr Brown did not “take his own advice” and return to the UK.

We wait to hear what the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Leader of New Zealand First has to say on the issue.

On a slightly related note, it reminds me of a further Cactus Kate story from Tuesday night. As we were heading along Blair Street, we ran into Keith Ng. Cactus looks at Keith somewhat warily when I mention he blogs for Public Address. I then mention he won a Press Council complaint against Deborah Coddington over her Asian crime story, and Cactus literally leaps forward and embraces Keith in full bear hug, finally releasing him after thanking him for his work.  It was very very funny.

Deborah reports on a shocking story from Alice Springs where the Haven Backpackers Resort Hotel evicted a group of women and children, just because of their skin colour – they were Aboriginal. And a former staffer has said management told them not to allow Aboriginals to stay. Disgusting.

Bloggers are encouraged to blog on this issue, so the hotel will have its actions high up in Google when people search on them in future.