I know that David Farrar works incredibly hard on his blog, and no matter how much those of us on the left of politics hate to admit it, Kiwiblog is a must read. But today I fear David has scored an own goal for his National Party masters, by taking the media to task over their incorrect description of people from Afghanistan. As David rightly points out they are not Afghanis, they are Afghans. A small error, but an error all the same.
More fundamentally perhaps, they are also not ” Afghanistanians” as Mr Key would have us believe in this interview with Radio NZ ( 7.12 story right about the 3:40 mark).
Thanks for reminding us of this particular mangling of the English language, David!
Its one of the good things about Kiwiblog – he is always happy to point out where the right has made a mistake and could improve on what they have done.
This blog could learn a few things from that.
BikerKiwi- except he did not point out Key’s mistake!
Gosh Grant you must be starting to run pretty low on material, for a change you could always say something nice about National, go on I dare you, no make that a double double dare.
Forget the semantics. The broader issue is the detritus of the third world that were given preferential immigration access to New Zealand as part of the Clark regime’s great social engineering project who are now engaged in criminality alongside their welfare guzzling.
Nice xenophobia Simon.
This post is filed under “humour”, and I think it’s quite good to have some light-hearted posts occasionally.
Now we start getting to the point, we carted these people halfway round the world, usually from the middle of conflict or war, then we gave them a piece of paper to say they are Kiwis and expected them to just fit right in.
Sure it gave us a warm fuzzy and we all put another coat of polish on our halos.
Sadly now reality is starting to bite, these people are different, it’s not racist it’s realist, they are going to revert to type, it’s how they were raised and lived.
What we are starting to see is just the top corner of the iceberg and RMS New Zealand is heading straight for it, and we are unsinkable just like Titanic.Yeah Right.
mmmmmmm…. Afghans. Especially with a walnut in the chocolate on top. If you’re ever in Timaru (god forbid lol), there’s a dairy up the top end of Waiiti Road that does magic Afghans.
Farrar only admits to National’s mistakes when they are ‘trifling and inconsequential’ – anything of real substance, and there has been plenty of those, he camouflages, tucks away, brushes over and otherwise conceals. His ploy of putting up a distracting anti-Green post, such as his pitiful ‘Greens want to abort’ etc.. post is a common enough example (one he describes as ’superb btw).
Nice post Grant – thought I can’t help but feel sad that our PM doesn’t know the name of the people of a country he is commiting our troops to…
Biker – why are you expecting the same level of behaviour from a Labour party blog as you see at Kiwiblog. Is Kiwiblog the official National party MPs blog? An official National party blog? Because if it is then DPF should come and and say so.
Greenfly: Exactly. David heaps faux criticism on issues of no important so he can say “gosh look how independent I am” (as he did earlier this week). Fact of the matter is that Farrar’s site is as much a National Party site as this one is Labour (albeit without this one’s clear ownership). And before I get The Standard thrown in my face, if you’ve read it you would realise it is a left wing site not necessarily a Labour site. Farrar, on the other hand, is pure NZ National.
My present Key favourite is “scuttlebug”, which he said outside caucus last week, when he meant scuttlebutt, in reference to rumour and innuendo. There was a lovely shot on TV of a smile spreading across Vernon Small’s face as he realised Key had delivered another little gem. My all time favourite remains the “alligator”, in reference to the woman making allegations against Richard Worth. Bless him.
Where is Tim with the C/T lines ?
Maybe it was C/T that taught John to say Afghanistanians – does sound a bit Aussie to me.
Simon, I’d love to hear John ‘W’ Key have a crack at the word “detritus”. And by the way, has the new “Dubya” administration changed the refugee quota or rules? Or is this “detritus” being approved for Kiwi resettlement daily by Tory ministers? To his credit, Dubya Key has sent our boys to Afghanistanianland to shoot a few of them.
Afganistanimiranians innit? That’s what I heard the Man Who Texas say….
@ Tigger “Biker – why are you expecting the same level of behaviour from a Labour party blog as you see at Kiwiblog. ”
Sadly I dont – I hold DPF in high regard and I doubt that this blog will ever have the integrity that his does.
At least with DFP you can disagree and ask questions and he will come back and debate.
Not like post and run chris carter (for example)
Also – he does not moderate views that disagree with his own – this blog seems to do a bit of that.
bikerkiwi both above comments – you don’t see what is moderated out or edited down. We don’t want to have a blog like David’s. We don’t like comments that are abusive or offensive. We tend to be softer on views that oppose our own. We prefer them to be informed but given the number of yours that appear it is clearly not a requirement. If you don’t like our approach then don’t comment. Probably a win win.
[Deleted, personal abuse, final warning - admin]
I have to vehemently disagree with Grant (sorry mate). Kiwiblog is unreadable. The rampant and unchecked homophobia and misogyny is enough to keep me away but bottom line, it’s a mouthpiece for National but isn’t being honest about that. That fundamental obfusation colours the entire site for me. Kiwiblog is the National Party spin machine in drag. And not even pretty drag…
[...] I blogged yesterday about some media incorrectly calling Afghans, Afghanis, Grant Robertson pointed out that a few weeks ago John Key called them [...]
@Al @ September 2, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I find your suggestion that Labour never says anything nice about National or never agrees with National on anything very strange. Perhaps you haven’t noticed that Labour and National vote together on almost all bill in Parliament?
Usually in debate MPs from both parties acknowledge the hard work done by each other.
Often Act and Greens criticise the commonality and ‘clubiness’ of National and Labour.
I disagree – I think it’s good that we have a polity where there is co-operation, agreement and civility on issues where there is agreement. I also think it is good that we have vehement, while civil, opposition where there is disagreement.
Grant, whilst we are correcting John Key’s making up of words, can you ask Phil to pronounce Al Qaeda correctly?
Yes it is an embarrassment having the PM make up words though
I think this just shows that David is not just a cheer leader for National. While he is certainly very center right, he has his own veiws, and is resonably balanced. To describe it as an own goal is a bit silly, he wasnt trying to score political points, and I’m quite sure he’s happy to expose John Keys linguistic shortcommings.