Wayne brown, it has been said, did nothing but make derogatory comments regarding the state of Northland tourism in front of prime minister John Key during the launch ceremony of Ipipiri, the new flagship of fascist mega corporation, Intercity group.
Fascist megacorporation flagship Ipipiri. Now stopping people fishing off the wharf.
The comments Wayne Brown made were not entirely reported. This is not unusual for the chronicle. When reviewing the works of local minority artists holding exhibitions it is not uncommon for the chronicle to “Detail what the artiste has for breakfast on any given Sunday”, yet any “Bad News story” gets quietly skirted around, barely mentioned, and in many cases, not mentioned at all. In the case of the Ipipiri launch, it devoted most of the article’s space to praising Uberfascist John Key for lowering himself to turn up at all, and then they filled the rest of the front page with pictures of Opua Primary school kids crowded around Key. Don’t they have better things to do than make an elected official look like he cares? Like be in school? Learning? Never mind, let’s not get world – weary and cynical here.
John Key himself made a telling statement: regarding the upcoming “Nudie Nuptials” contest run by unfunny radio station “The Edge” (Where the winners got married in the nude on Ipipiri), he stated this was a great idea, as the rooms on the boat have nowhere for people to hang their clothes. Ten million dollars and no clothes hooks? I hear now they hand out free earplugs because the walls are paper thin. The crew famil night led to complaints to management because people could hear other people shagging in the next room. Through the paper-thin walls. Nice.
A letter to the editor in a later issue refers to hotels charging 200 dollars a night for rooms with linoleum flooring and Formica benchtops. Well, if Wayne did actually come out with this one, he has a good point. If I’d forked out $200 for a hotel room and then discovered it looked like it was last made over circa 1971, I’d be a little pissed. Actually, I’d want the Hotelier’s head on a stick. I once stayed in a hotel in Wanaka which had this exact look, but it overlooked the lake and only cost me $60 for the night. Using this comment as a point of reference, what were the rest of the comments made by Wayne Brown, and was he being controversial for shock value, or did he actually have a point? Is northland tourism, as he claimed, actually “A Joke?” Well, if you work in the industry up here you have a job for about 5 months of the year. 7 months of the year, you’ve got to find something else to do. Paihia in the middle of winter still resembles little more than a ghost town, and it’s not unusual for a business to start at the beginning of summer and be broke before the next one rolls around.
Fullers, Great Sights, Intercity, Awesome NZ, Newmans coachlines. Pick your company. All the money goes to the same fascist corporation.
Plus, working on the dive boat, I quite often get asked what there is to do in Paihia. Well, If we’ve dived Cape Brett, then you’ve seen the best of the bay. You can go out at night and get drunk. You can watch a culture show at the historic treaty grounds. You can go to Adventure World and play the most infuriating minigolf in the country. You can go to Woolworth’s. Quite often my answer is “Ummm…”
Wayne Brown in his term has a reputation for disturbing the established “Old boy’s” club style of local governance. Many councilors want him gone, mainly because he has written them out of jobs. From letters to the editor again, which quite often resembles nothing more than a propaganda sheet for councilors and minority interest groups with an axe to grind, it seems Wayne is merely establishing a new order of an Old Boy’s club, but considering that’s all we’ll ever get in local body politics, why not let him set it up and get on with the job? We elected the man into power, after all!
So: Why was the whole incident not reported in the chronicle? (Apart from the fact it’s a total happy rag which seems to avoid bad news in the area at all costs) Why are the comments not reported for wider public consideration? Why are we just told that our mayor is negative and bashes northland? If the man has good, valid points shouldn’t we be working on them as a whole to improve tourism in northland? After all, we have a fantastic destination here. We just need to let people know it is here.
Personally, I think perhaps the Chronicle should: devote itself entirely to Whining letters to the editor from outraged minorities pretending they’re majorities. Drop the brave stories of crap northland Artistes who, since Helen Clarke’s reforms, no longer have to look for a job while they’re on the Dole as long as they bash out a canvas of vomit or pass off tall piles of rocks as sculptures every now and then. Increase the advertising volume. Increase the size of the rag twofold. At least then I won’t be tempted to read this pile of shite when it drops through the letterbox, and can just shred it to light the fire.
And any artists who I’ve enraged: Rack right off. When an overseas artist can call a janitor, have him scatter the rubbish other “Works of art” were wrapped in all over the floor, and then walk away with thousands of dollars of grand prize money FOR TELLING SOMEONE ELSE TO MAKE A MESS then it’s obvious the whole deal is a pathetic joke. Get a real job. The old fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, has, in the light of modern society, turned out to be a telling documentary of the state of social decay.
(I.e, let’s spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for rock piles on concrete called “Sculpture”, and more hundreds of thousands on a shithouse designed by a dirty hippy. Instead of, say, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars fixing Northland’s roads so they don’t still look like the world war two Army-built goat tracks they really are. “Welcome to Northland-Please Try Not To Crash And Die.)
Have a nice day!
