overtaking john key

i shared bits of a challenging article by radha d'souza over at the hand mirror yesterday, and strongly recommend reading the whole thing.

in "cutting-of-your-nose-to-spite-your-face" news, i heard about this from facebook:

Coppola claims the visitors were left “stunned” and “incredibly upset” after a trip to the Back Country tourist store in Buckingham Street [in Arrowtown]. The cabbie says shopkeeper Ewan Jones told the party his policy was to let in only four “Chinese” at once, because he’d previously been ripped off by Chinese tour groups.

Coppola says after the alleged incident, he apologised to the shocked Malaysians – delegates to a large multinational healthcare conference in Queenstown. “What incensed me is I’ve been 30 years in the local tourism industry and these people are our bread and butter.”

i'm amazed at the sheer stupidity of this. nothing more needs to be said really.

and also on facebook, the "save radio nz" page now has over 19,000 fans and has surpassed the number of fans john key has. which is an achievement because it shows just how much support there is in this country for public broadcasting. let's just hope that the government listens to all of these people, and ensures radio nz has sufficient funding to continue doing what it does so well.