Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A 'nice' couple came 'a-visiting' It cost NZ$1.2 million---BARGAIN!

I am not a ‘royalist,’ and I don’t easily get sucked in by the visits of ‘dignitaries.’ Neither do I spit venom at the sight of flag-waving crowds; many of whom are in possession of the Union Jack version of the flag, or the happy faces lining the streets of the cities and towns lucky enough to receive the good-looking family from the extreme North.
I know that Face Book had all the usual comments pertaining to the’ royal leaches’ and many more comments. I was not taken in; indeed it quickly became apparent that a huge numbers of New Zealanders, some of them ‘new arrivals to our increasingly ‘non-British’ makeup were hugely enjoying the visit. Little girls dressed as princesses, throwing away the PC ideals that have plagued us for decades about gender equality and various other twists on the theme. Mothers giggled in anticipation of meeting the handsome ‘one day to be King.’
For ten days, New Zealand almost forget about the other ‘evils,’ besetting the world, as we cast ourselves back to a time gone by. For all of this happy welcoming to our shores of the Royal Couple, we paid a tiny NZ$1.2 million. It is pretty damn clear that this will more than come back to us in the form of huge publicity. There were very few overseas channels that I have access to that did not regularly show stunning pictures of New Zealand landscapes and no amount of money can beat that for publicity. Expect yet another jump in tourist visit.
Now, it’s the turn of our Aussie cousins. I bet they will be just as ‘taken,’ by the ‘we three.’

I am being cruel, am I not? Should I make fun of the 'Dear Leader?'

I am so lucky that I do not live near the North Korean embassy. Hey, do they even have one in New Zealand?  If the answer to both points is yes, then I could be in deep doggie poo! The report on the hair salon in London, which just happens to be very close to the North Korean Embassy, received a visit from two men in dark suits, requesting the said salon to desist from using a picture of the ‘Dear Leader’ to advertise for solutions re ‘a bad hair day.’ It appears that the embassy staff was most put out that such actions could take place. This of course would never happen in the ‘mad fantasyland’ next to South Korea. Anyone contemplating such vial actions would need to be ‘re-educated or possibly put to death with a flame thrower!’
The police were called and decided to take no action as no laws were broken; in other words the message was given to the North Koreans to pull their heads in! What must it be like working for this psychotic regime; having to represent it to the rest of the world, in a nation that actual values freedom of choice, where criticism of the government (OK, I won’t go too far in my praise of one of the world’s oldest democracies, because there are those who will not believe me) is actually ---ah---OK! Indeed UK citizens thrive on having that right.
Can’t you see the officials in the embassy, peering through shrouded windows, aiming their directional mikes at the salon in the hope that they can record people’s conversation about their beloved homeland and ‘Dear Leader?’ They would of course be disappointed; firstly because they wouldn’t understand the Cockney accents (I made that one up out of desperation!) and words would be used that just wouldn’t figure in their appropriately assumed world views, or should I say, that espoused by their Dear Leader.
I suspect that in the next few days, the British secret service will revive a visit from several bedraggled North Korean officials, who will be seeking political asylum, as they fear for their lives. They had not delivered the result desired by tier God-like leader; hence their lives are now in danger.  Extrapolate this extreme situation to the whole of North Korea and you start to get a picture of what life is like for other than those close to the Dear Leader or those in the army. AND—we worry about a few nut-head pro-Russian fanatics; stooges of Putin who would drag us closer to the Cold War of old. Mmm----- maybe Putin is a clone of you know who!

Boko Haram---no other word to desrcibe them other than ---EVIL!

We have witnessed many incidents whereby the Boko Haram group of fundamentalist Islamists have terrorised the people of Northern Nigeria. We have seen them murder, bomb, mutilate and kidnap the citizens of Nigeria. What possible faith-based justification can they give for their evil actions? How can they use the plight of 100 young girls (who they have just kidnapped) to push their cause, which I assume is to establish a Sharia law based nation in Nigeria? Where in their holly book, if indeed they can even read it, does it give them the right to follow such pathways? I feel for moderate Muslims, who bear the brunt of any response for the actions of their extremist relations. The former are no different to any religious group, who have the same wishes for their families, the same desire for peace as the rest of the vast bulk of humanity.
We hear that extremist groups are a response to the injustices of Governments  and the exclusion of minorities (and sometime majorities, when it comes to income sharing within nations) but the violent, criminal and destructive choices Boko Haram follow are an insult to all people, no matter what their religious or otherwise choices. That the Government of Nigeria is corrupt is a fact, but the response from Boko Haram will go down in history as somewhere up there like the Khmer Rouge. They must be stopped now. Dialogue will obviously fail, because they do not ‘listen.’ They just show their intolerance and ignorance through violence and hate.

Romania--wow----someone is reading my blogs there a great deal today!

Fantastic! I love it when I see a country figuring big time as a ‘new’ reader of my blogs. Yes, I know there have a been a few hits on my website and blog from Romania in the past, but 20 in one day is more than just coincidental. I am most pleased and when something like this happens, I always Google that country to increase my knowledge. The links between Romania and NZ are primarily in the sporting field (Rugby, in particular) and a very small number of immigrants. Let them increase and decrease NZ’s dependence on just a few other large economies. Smaller nations, especially those of NZ’s relative ‘smallness’ on the world scene, should stick together more.
OK< keep reading ‘me,’ Romania and hopefully download or buy the hard copies of my books. That can happen once the ‘upload to Amazon is completed in the next week or so. I just signed off the final reviews so that the book, ROSKILL can go to the printers.