Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Judge no dope

The Taranaki Herald had a report that made me laugh out loud. Thought you might enjoy it too.

A Waitara cannabis dealer told a judge he had turned his life around.
Benjamin Teika, 27, spoke directly to the judge yesterday in New Plymouth District Court, saying he was deeply ashamed of his offending, and had taken himself out of Waitara and had been drug-free for 22 days.
"I'm bummed out that I've done this," Teika said.
"You're bummed out that you got caught," Judge Allan Roberts countered, telling him to "cut the waffle".

4 comments:

Arira said...

Okay. Proving I'm not a robot...
Sorry if this isn't exactly on the topic.

Your website is really great in the way it brings relevant stories to your readers attention. Thank you.

Recently I have had a shock. So shocking was the information I came across in relation to my whanau that I actually walked aprox. 10 ks in one direction before realising how far I had walked. I'm still suffering, and I'll never wear those sneakers again!

How would you go about promoting Pakeha-Maori who are a politically invisible group in our culture today? 'Maori' and 'Pakeha' talk over the heads of Maori-Pakeha. An illusion of 'maoriness' is being promoted out of context of reality.

No Pakeha-Maori toku iwi. Ko Barnett Burns tetahi tipuna. He takawaenga ia, a, kaihokohoko hoki. He was a rogue also.

I know the concept for Te Korowai came from a taskforce who asked the question of anon. kaumataua in a hui setting. (22 hui) From this came Whanau Ora.

I know the metaphor of a Korowai is a riddiculously simplistic and incorrect metaphor to apply to ANYONE's whanau. I understand the powerlessness of the challenge against all things Maori.

New Zealand needs intermediary's. Pakeha-Maori can't be called racist - not as successfully anyway.

I know Turiana's model diagram of whanau ora all over govt. websites (and here) is a cause for humiliation on an international level. Given that anyone with an interest in welfare in the world can access it's profound wisdom.

There is more than one way to tear a korowai. These are my thoughts today.

I guess I wish to exhort Pakeha-Maori and Maori-Pakeha to be seen as an actual group of people in this country. Intermediary's.

That's the way I'm thinking anyway.

FF said...

It's usually the judges who need to cut the waffle.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Arira,

By Maori-Pakeha or vice-versa do you mean mixed ethnicity or mixed world-view? I'm of mixed world-view but not mixed ethnicity. I hate the red-neck, knee-jerk, anti-Maori perspective and I hate the Maori victimhood perspective. I sympathise with Maori historic grievances but jar at Maori exploitive opportunism. I want to help lower socio-economic Maori but don't see government as the vehicle. Above all, I really hate seeing Maori children disproportionately missing out on what their innate abilities could realise.

I'm intrigued by your comment because it excites me. You touch on something I feel quite deeply but have never addressed in a practical sense; that is, how can this group find a voice and appeal to its silent, or sleeping adherents? I suspect many are Maori/Pakeha not in NZ. Many are Maori/Pakeha in NZ who live and work together either getting pissed off with political division or paying no heed. But surely there are very many of us "intermediaries" who simply want to get on with our lives together. Is there a potential political vehicle?

(My comprehension of your comment would probably answer that question.)

Richard said...

This is one of the reasons we still have drug prohibition. Because people like Benjamin Teika stand in front of the judge and make lame excuses instead of standing up to the judge and telling him to mind his own fucking business.