{"id":10144,"date":"2017-06-24T17:10:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T04:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=10144"},"modified":"2017-06-24T17:40:28","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T04:40:28","slug":"hone-says-sorry-to-winston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=10144","title":{"rendered":"HONE SAYS SORRY TO WINSTON"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0MANA Leader Hone Harawira<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kia ora ra<\/p>\n

Below is a press statement I tried to post last week but nobody was interested.<\/p>\n

This morning I was on The NATION and I said that we should take the importation of \u201cP\u201d more seriously by introducing legislation to either (1) jail Chinese convicted of importing P or the chemicals to make it, for life, or (2) send them back to China with a life ban on their ever returning to this country, or as a last resort (3) execute the bastards for the damage that they are wreaking on our society.<\/p>\n

Naturally the media are only interested sensationalising the \u201cHarawira wants to execute Chinese Drug Dealers\u201d line and now the story\u2019s gone viral.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s a little backgrounder to explain where I\u2019m coming from \u2026<\/p>\n

When I first went to parliament I wanted to stop tobacco from killing Maori people. I said then that I\u2019d like to put all the Big Tobacco Executives up against the wall and shoot them. That got a lot of airplay but it also put a marker down. From there I lobbied the Health Select Committee (unsuccessfully \u2013 too many National MPs in Big Tobacco\u2019s pocket back then). So I refocussed the issue to be an \u201cinvestigation into the impact of tobacco on MAORI\u201d. We got the proposal shifted across to the Maori Affairs Select Committee, I used all my contacts to build a huge public campaign against tobacco, we got people to turn up at our hearings all around the country, and by the time we got the issue into the house, every MP spoke in favour of Aotearoa becoming Smokefree by 2025 except ACT.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll take the flak about the executing Chinese drug dealers, but if you really want to know where I\u2019m going with all this, read the press release below and then text me. I\u2019m happy to talk, but I\u2019m happier talking to people who understand what I\u2019m on about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Winston<\/p>\n

Sorry for not inviting you to our Fight the \u2018P\u2019 Fight Night<\/strong> in Kaitaia.<\/p>\n

Maybe if you\u2019d come you\u2019d have understood what we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

You see Winston, over the past couple of years I\u2019ve been to hui and tangi where P <\/strong>has been at the centre of the chaos – people who\u2019d been killed for it, or who\u2019d bashed some poor prick while they were on it, or were on the run from P debts, you name it.<\/p>\n

P is a vicious and nasty drug Winston – you know that. It destroys people\u2019s ability to think rationally, it causes massive friction within whanau and it breaks down trust in communities when addicts start lying, stealing, borrowing, bullying, bashing and bludging off those closest to them to feed their habit. And it shows no respect whatsoever for whanaungatanga, or any of the other principles of Maoridom that help keep people safe during tough times.<\/p>\n

And even though government splashed out some bucks to deal with the problem, I think you already know that Health Boards hiring more counsellors and Police chiefs hiring more cops won\u2019t change things – I think even they know it\u2019s going to take something different. And as for rehabilitation – well, we got more than 1,000 P heads in the north and we only got 5 rehab beds.<\/p>\n

Doing the same thing we\u2019ve always done and expecting a different result is dumb. So we have to do something different Winston. We have to think outside the square – to get the message to different audiences in a different way. We have to change the game plan. And that\u2019s where the idea of a Fight Night came from. It\u2019s not the magic bullet and it isn\u2019t the only game in town, but mate \u2013 it sure got noticed \u2013 and awareness is the first step in the journey to recovery.<\/p>\n

Yeah \u2026 I hear your gripe about the Chinese and the gangs being involved in the meth trade. And that\u2019s true. But just saying so won\u2019t stop it.<\/p>\n

Making laws to stop the importation of meth from China and the chemicals to make it, is parliament\u2019s job, your job. But nobody down there wants to do anything about it because they\u2019d rather people died here than lose a trade deal with China. Bullshit eh? So what say when I get back, me and you promote a law to execute Chinese convicted of bringing meth or its precursors into Aotearoa? Be a great start mate and your people would love you for it.<\/p>\n

And as for gangs, yeah we had gangs there but so what? We had doctors there too, and lawyers, and hospital administrators, and unemployed mums, and high-achievers, and serving army personnel, and criminology students, and teachers, and social workers and campaigners against domestic violence, and community activists, and Pakeha, and Maori, and Pasifika. Hell, we even had politicians there!<\/p>\n

Our judges at ringside were the Bishop of the local Mormon Church, a Senior Sergeant from the Kaitaia Police Station and a District Court Judge, and we had a full blown Police Inspector there watching over the whole gig and he seemed quite supportive of what we were trying to do.<\/p>\n

The venue was at our local kura Te Rangi Aniwaniwa, the biggest gym in the whole of your electorate Winston. Mind you, Niwa is alcohol and smoke free so you mightn\u2019t have liked it but everybody was really well-behaved.<\/p>\n

And as for the fighters \u2013 well let me tell you, the president of the local chapter of the Mongrel Mob took the big fight because nobody else wanted to get in the ring with an ex-heavyweight boxer. But he did it, he copped some bombs but he fought hard and he fought to the end. Much respect.<\/p>\n

And guess what else Winston? Kaitaia Hospital sponsored all the P test kits and Dr Joel Pirini conducted the tests before the fights, and ALL of our fighters tested 100% P free.<\/p>\n

Our fighters were champions for stepping into the ring Winston and we\u2019re proud of them for that. But they are also heroes to a community that has seen its fair share of the damage caused by P and I thank Jason Reti, the Open the Curtain crew, the fighters and everybody else who contributed to making it a great night.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah – and the $15,000 that we raised on the night? It\u2019s all going to help develop a park for our kids in Kaitaia West. They deserve it and we aim to make sure they get it.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m sorry you weren\u2019t there Winston, but I ain\u2019t sorry we did it.<\/p>\n

Thank you Kaitaia. You were awesome \u2013 as usual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0MANA Leader Hone Harawira Kia ora ra Below is a press statement I tried to post last week but nobody was interested. This morning I was on The NATION and I said that we should take the importation of \u201cP\u201d more seriously by introducing legislation to either (1) jail Chinese convicted of importing P or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":10141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10144"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10149,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144\/revisions\/10149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}