this isn't right

first a couple of links to my latest posts at the hand mirror. yesterday i talked about the awful body-shaming programmes that are on tv these days, and today i have a post about a friend of mine who has received a national award for being an exceptional international student.

second, i'd like to agree with this post at the standard about the latest furore over hone harawira. i really recommend you read the whole thing. it's appalling the way he has been misquoted by media and bloggers alike. i'm looking at you trevor mallard & shane jones: surely you can take the trouble to go to the original source and make sure that the man has been correctly quoted. but having failed to do that, i'd at least expect a correction on your blog and an admission that the reporting has been mischievous and incorrect. but failing even that, you could at least delete the lie from the herald from the post.

i understand the need to not support the mana party, just in the same way that labour never supported the maori party in 2005 and 2008. supporting these parties means betrayal of your own maori candidates in the maori electorates, and it gives people another reason not to give labour maori candidates their electorate vote. realistically, as long as labour is competing in the maori electorates, they will be at loggerheads with other parties who also compete.

the national party doesn't even bother to stand electorate candidates in these seats, so can afford to be more conciliatory towards both the maori & the mana party - if their core voting base would allow them to be so. with the return of dr brash and his particular style of nastiness, that core voting base will be a lot more divisive.

however, even though i understand the politics at play here, i can't support the promotion of deliberate misinformation. if you're going to attack mr harawira, at least attack him for what he actually said. i expect better from my team.

it's still a long way out from the election, and as i've said in posts earlier this year, i'm apprehensive about the consequences of political rhetoric on minority groups. right now, it's looking a lot worse than i imagined, and it's certainly not going to be getting better any time soon. especially when almost all parties on the political spectrum are willing to be part of the hate.

even the greens are conspicuously silent today - they can't afford to speak out because the mana party is in direct competition with the same set of voters. to support mana is to support their core opposition.

so who is left to speak for truth, reason and reasonableness? anyone? anyone at all?