Acquitting Themselves to Perfection: The Real Heroes - and Heroines - of New Zealand's 'Darkest Day'

You doubtless need not be told who these noble/gallant folk are...

-yes, the survivors and surviving family of those so ruthlessly gunned down two Fridays (16 days/half a month) ago...who've displayed a degree and depth of forgiveness - arguably not just sublime but well-nigh divine - almost unheard of amidst modern 'humanity's' seemingly endless litany of horror sufferers and survivors...

...as well as their various fellow Muslim 'spokespeople'/representatives, such as an eminent Imam who appeared on last Sunday's (22/3) Newshub Nation, who declared that it's extremism of all sorts, shapes and sizes, flavours and configurations, that's the real problem...not only the new ideological demon of the month, white supremacy and/or Islamophobia...

...and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, now justly globally acclaimed for her deft, adroit - but, far more importantly, duly sensitive and empathetic - 'handling' of the whole sordid ordeal, or, more aptly, the immediate (and short-term) aftermath thereof...

Though there are ever those determined to find a convenient scapegoat - *cf Professor Paul Spoonley on Friday last's 'The Project', vis-a-vis the role of politicians such as (present-day, and oftentimes) deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, 'the Right Honourable' - in helping create an atmosphere conducive to/that allowed the Christchurch massacre to occur...

...whilst others, in the mainstream media, appear equally ever ready to conflate any and every semblance of contrariness and even sheer **'orneryness' in the body politic - however further afield (such as the U K ***'Brexit' or the phenomenon of President Donald Trump) - into similar instances or parallels of the virus that so demonstrably affected - infected - New Zealand's latest mass murderer.

What has been particularly heartening and even refreshing about the response of New Zealand's Muslim ****community-at-large has been their astonishing readiness, not to mention ability - seemingly to a man or woman - to apparently forgive such diabolical evil and evildoer from the heart ...quite irrespective, obviously, of his own (highly likely) unwillingness to ever seek such...

...simply because, as *****that great 20th-Century prophet of the United States of America was wont to say/express things...one can only ever really expel darkness, not with more darkness, but with light...and likewise, one cannot get rid of hate with more hate, but only with love...

...and as his own Supreme Master so beautifully taught and moreover wonderfully exemplified throughout His own tragically-shortened earthly sojourn...

*Who indeed put a good case thereabouts, but he's not only going out upon somewhat of a limb, knowing Mr Peters' penchant for withering counterattack and holding a grudge till kingdom come  Spoonley may well have bitten off far more than he can chew...

**As my Mum's late mother might well have deemed it...

***As 'the Bard' (i.e. William Shakespeare), no less, might well have mused: 'To B(r)e(xit) or Not to B(r)e(xit), That is the Question...'

****Evidently 50,000-strong, a little over 1% of the population.

*****Did you guess who I'm referring to? Yep, Dr Martin Luther King...

Mea Culpa...vis-a-vis my own (however inadvertent) role in (however unwittingly), if not exactly disseminating, not properly discerning and 'calling out' some 'stuff' and individuals and movements of recent times...

Naturally enough - see tail-end of previous blogpost - to be continued...

Sunday eve (March 31st):

To wit, that Queensland (federal) senator 'Anning', whose *true nature has well and truly come to the surface over recent weeks, i.e. since NZ's 'darkest day' of March 15th...

And all (if a rather belated) **kudos to his young 'egg-sailant', whose brave antics have surely earned him a place in the New Zealand hall of fame for time immemorial...

But as for my own 'credentials' upon the matter of white supremacy/nationalism and/or Islamophobia ...I personally strongly doubt whether there would be very many people who've not only befriended (and been befriended by) people of as many races, nationalities and ethnicities as myself...let alone gone out of their way as much to at times stand up for such individually when treated at all unfairly/in an unfriendly fashion (by other people/******outfits)...

*Yes, I cannot deny giving the fellow 'the benefit of the doubt', as I wrote at the time, and that simply because I've become increasingly unable to trust the mainstream (Western) media's 'ganging up upon' certain public menaces/the monthly 'Public Enemy #1 over recent weeks and months... especially vis-a-vis the ongoing - and ***seemingly never-ending - fallout from the Me Too Movement's public outing of various and sundry high-profile personas/personae...

**'Credit, fame, renown, prestige' (Gr[eek] kydos, glory), according to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (1988/1989 edition).

***And in case yet another 'case in point' were needed, what is 'headlined' upon tonight's TV1 News but an accusation - of 'inappropriate [Oval Office] conduct' by/against (presumptive) Democratic Presidential Nominee, President Obama's ****Veep *****Joe Biden no less...

****Of course, American shorthand for Vice-President...

*****Which this punter, anyhow, finds especially *******galling...subject to further clarification, elaboration and (even half-pie) convincing 'evidence'...when set in stark relief against [said media's] determination at all costs to resist - to the death, seemingly - any and every instance of serious allegation against a certain former President, whose 'high crimes and misdemeanours' were such that he was ultimately one of only two sitting American presidents to be impeached...

 ******Specifically recalling just now a local bus driver who, one or two years back, treated an Indian guy and gal in a particularly cold and unfriendly way...to whom, when I got to the seat next theirs, I gave the great reassurance that that particular dude was unpleasant to one and all - including Yours Truly - so not to take it at all personally (or as expressing some kind of anti-Asian ill-will)...

*******Yes, I didn't come down on the last cloud, either, and am only too well aware that with the advent of (and backwash from) MeToo, a person's status before the law is evidently now 'guilty till proven innocent'...and yet am equally aware that out present-day, westernwide 'trial by media' is not faultless, and hence a number of even high-profilers (f'r'instance British singer-songwriter Sir Cliff Richards) have since been found not guilty, or at least not 'guilty beyond reasonable doubt'...

Conflating Great Britain's Brexit - or More Precisely, Brexiters...with Aotearoa-New Zealand's 'Darkest Day' ...is one Step way too far by Kiwi Broadcasters...and then some...

As I mentioned at the conclusion of 'yesterday's' blogpost (i.e. the second half or so of my last one), it's extremely bad form...slanderous even...to in any way, shape or form seek to somehow (or other) - even if only by clear as mud, blimin' obvious implication - link or connect or even associate the awful tragedy our nation experienced/sustained upon the now ever memorable afternoon of March 15th with the referendum result in the United Kingdom upon June 23rd, 2016...

Yes, to even make such an attempt is to cast a base and vile, equally *'unforgivable' slur upon each and every person who voted for the U K to leave the European Union...whether that ever in fact takes place now or not...a likelihood now very much, as they say, **'in the lap of the gods'...

*Though no sin is ultimately unpardonable in a precise, absolute sense of the term...except that of the sin against the Holy Spirit, as Jesus so meticulously pointed out...

**Or rather, in the lap of the One True God...

To Be Continued (after sufficient shuteye)...
-3 days on-

There's probably not all that much really to add to this particular blogpost, actually, except to say that this is one particular 'bugbear' I intend taking all the way to the BSA (the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority) - some things are really that important (in the overall scheme of things)...

...but, as per usual - especially over the last few weeks and months, anyway - 'other things' have once again intervened/thrown ye proverbial fly in the ointment/spoke in the wheel...and so, since - somehow or other, sooner rather than later - inadvertently being effectively knocked off the bloggersphere by Blogger.com is not exactly a prospect I particularly relish...

...I'm afraid to say that attending to some rather basic 'housekeeping' (blog-safekeeping) appears the preeminent order of the day...so, without further ado, pardon me if I do just that, i.e. momentarily skedaddle...to put out any potential fires before they inadvertently engulf and consume the best laid plans of this particular individual (and the rodents presently seeking to find a home in our ceiling as autumn finally arrives and temps start dropping of an evening especially)...

"This is not who we are"...This is/was (in fact) us: The Understandable Schizophrenia following our Unheard of Tragedy

Ruminations on the eve of March 21st, 2019

So which is it? Is our now internationally-acclaimed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern absolutely spot-on - in saying the former...or are the nay-sayers correct? How about this self-contradictory conclusion: neither...or rather, both. And at the very same time...

Technically, the guy was an Aussie...who, moreover, came over here with the express purpose of 'proving' that this kind of massacre/atrocity/tragedy could actually happen anywhere...
(Or at least once he'd arrived here he gestated/germinated just such a fiendish objective.)

So - strictly-speaking - he really, actually, isn't 'one of us', all the more ironic because that of course was why he targeted the Muslim folk he did; in his own mind, 'they' were not truly 'us'. Although it could equally well be the case that, egged on by endless *talkback radio discussion and the like, he simply didn't trust Muslims; supposing that, even if they'd happened to have been living in New Zealand for a long time, generations even, they were potential jihadists: Sissii Internationale sympathisers, even terrorists, in his own (very twisted) mind...

All fair enough suspicions, seeing as - surprise, surprise - we can't actually read his mind...nor would very many of us even care to, truth be told...-subterranean, cavernous sewers and cesspits never really being particularly inviting places to visit, even on a nice day...

*But so as no-one gets the wrong idea here, it's exceedingly rare, virtually never that I at least - and as an avid consumer of NZ's major talkback radio station, Newstalk ZB (in addition to 'Government Radio' or 'Radio Stalingrad', as some of its noteworthy detractors have ever referred to RNZ National), I happen to know whereof I speak - have ever heard what is in standard lingo referred to as (either) 'xenophobia' or 'hate speech'...though one (wo)man's hate speech or xenophobia ain't necessarily the next person's...

Indeed, whenever I've heard someone (usually a fellow) evidently about to launch out upon such a diatribe of dangerous 'drivel', the particular host invariably pushes the 'cutoff' button...something incidentally that usually doesn't happen whenever folk (including some hosts) on RNZ spout their typical anti-Christian, as in (arguably) blasphemous, 'Christ this or that or the other' abusive speech...but of course anti-Christian language doesn't apparently amount to such intolerable 'stuff'.

But having said that, my conscience reminded me, a little while post-our **9/11, that a number of months back I'd meant to - and indeed I might well have, but I don't believe I actually got round to it - 'inform' a particular talkback host that he ought to take note that certain statements either he or certain guests had made (around that time) ***could possibly be taken - by unstable 'minds', that is - and used for malicious purposes...but naturally nothing - remotely - of the magnitude, let alone kind, of what occurred in Christchurch upon March 15th was upon my mind when I planned doing such...

**As someone has stated, including on a (hitchhike) ride the other day when said driver mentioned how someone had calculated that if the kiwi tragedy had occurred in the U S of A the equivalent death toll would've been 3,200 or so (I believe, based upon my now calculating that 50 people out of a population of 4.75 million or so NZers is around about 1 in every 100,000 people...and so we come to America's own 9/11 itself, whereupon 3,000-some folk died. So if anything - and of course only in sheer numerical terms - NZ's 50 murdered equates to 3,500 or so in the United States)...

***Indeed, though the ****BBC item gave every appearance the other day of tying any and every instance, presumably, of low-level racist talk as indicative of the potential for NZ's recent massacre - obviously problematic in the extreme as such a thing, thereby implicating large proportions of populations in nations all around the world and moreover from time immemorial, as potential mass murderers, is obviously not only far-fetched but really rather slanderous/libellous and over-the-top to the nth degree - was soon enough countered by this particular former kiwi (now residing in Texas) herself...when she included this all so important caveat: that the individual concerned had first been radicalized...

****But in the (necessary) defence of the particular BBC journalist concerned, he was only making reference to how NZers themselves, or rather their media - had discussed the atrocity...i.e. in terms of such even low-level racism being suggestive of the possibility of such awful events. But insofar as kiwi media have themselves been only too eager to fall over themselves in thus conflating any and every such incidence of 'Islamophobia' into a potential massacre scenario, I'll have more to say both here and elsewhere in the not too distant...including a complaint I intend lodging with our Broadcasting Standards Authority following the (ongoing) implied association of not only the Trump victory and administration with such 'white supremacy', but - as often as not - the United Kingdom's Brexit...and that, to this fair-minded individual, is quite simply a step way too far...and then some...

Rising to the Most Difficult Occasion Imaginable: Profuse Plaudits to those most unlikely of worthy recipients: our (New Zealand) Members of Parliament - especially our Christchurch-based ones

Listening in to parliamentary broadcasts (radio and TV) does have its benefits...chiefly upon those reasonably rare occasions when a disaster (whether manmade or natural) occurs...

And so I dedicate this blogpost to a plethora of (individually) unlikely recipients...who have indeed risen to the occasion in this most unpleasant of times...

But first, let me suggest that the folk who've shown the most sterling quality throughout this entire sorry saga...which seems to be universally agreed upon, in fact...are

the members of the New Zealand Muslim community, or more precisely, those in Christchurch who either lost relatives or were injured or miraculously survived the ordeal but witnessed others not as blessed...for the degree of forgiveness, mercy and love shown has been exemplary, worthy indeed of the very best traditions of my own, i.e. the Christian religion...whose adherents, not excluding myself at times I must concede, have fallen far short of the superlative example set by our Model and Mentor....

Followed by the nation's 'first responders', i.e. our police, hospital and ambulance staff...who have  conducted themselves admirably - with flying colours - going way beyond the ordinary call of duty...

And among those may I single out Police Commissioner Mike Bush himself...someone who has shown his own quality at this most difficult of times...fronting press conferences on an ongoing fashion in a totally undefensive way, explicating in great detail each and every possible nuance of concern or detail and doing so invariably with great panache, grace and the utmost sensitivity...

Among parliamentarians during yesterday's 'Motion of Condolence', following the previous afternoon's equally solemn and sobering initial parliamentary mention and discussion thereof - which included the reflections and heartfelt feelings of the leaders of all our elected representatives - I at least was especially touched and moved by a number of National Party MPs, and more specifically ones hailing from that most tragic of New Zealand cities, Christchurch (my birthplace).

And that makes perfect sense, as Christchurch- (and Canterbury-) based members of Parliament obviously have a lot more experience than most other MPs in living and surviving through what would now have to be deemed our nation's two worst 'disasters' (at least in terms of numbers of people killed, injured and otherwise affected) - this recent atrocity and of course the earthquakes (both initial and unrelenting, successive aftershocks) that began/reached crescendo proportions on September 4th, 2010 and February 22nd, 2011...(along with the Kaikoura Earthquake a few years on).

And so naturally these folk have some on-the-ground understanding for what their fellow Christchurchers (and Cantabrians) have been going through - many themselves going through similar stuff (though oftentimes keeping fairly mum thereabouts, rather than selfishly draw peoples' attention
to their own very real sufferings). And so it's hardly totally unexpected that the likes of (former Earthquake Recovery Minister) Gerry Brownlie, (former Speaker) David Carter, the longserving Ruth Dyson, or the (relative newbie M.P.) Matt Doucie, among others, might have something more than worthwhile to say when Parliament set aside two hours yesterday (for 24 speakers) to address a 'motion of condolence' thereabouts...

I suppose I could quote various lines of special note - if I'd managed to jot them down (but in this instance, and despite viewing said debate twice yesterday, I was too gripped by the various speeches to (properly) do so)...but hey, you yourselves can (try to) access the on-line parliamentary Hansard, which I believe is ever available, hopefully at no cost, to any comers...

...but nevertheless, may I simply shower profuse praise upon these four speakers in particular, and Judith Collins - as well as David Seymour, but for different reasons (to be cited on another occasion) - and say that their emotions came over as raw and thoroughly genuine (though initially with one person I was a bit suspect till I saw her on TV later on)...right from the (very bottom/s of) their hearts...with no needless airs and graces (except admittedly Ms Collins to begin with)...

...revealing their unforgettable interactions with individual Muslims in particular in the immediate aftermath of the massacre and/or their utter amazement at the level and depth of forgiveness shown by those deeply affected by those tragic events...

Yes, as Samwise Gamgee might have put it, you (all) showed your quality, Messrs and Madames...

Granted, We're only just emerging from New Zealand's '9/11', But speaking of - and to - political double-standards, it's hard to go past these (all too flagrant) examples/illustrations thereof...

...of one M.P. who (not that long ago) told a male colleague - and one, moreover, who'd been undergoing major mental health issues for some considerable time - he ought to go kill himself...

...of another - anecdotally, and quite credibly - considered to have been majorly bullying staff...

...and of a third, now shown to have not acted, when given an altogether opportune time to do so less than two years back, to ban semi-automatic weapons from the length and breadth of - what was then still - 'God's Own' nation...

And what, prithee, happens to connect all these individuals - the first an up-and-coming backbencher, the second a former minister of the Crown, the third a former (and present) deputy leader of one of New Zealand's two main political parties? They share this common trait: they're all female National Party M.P.s...

...only apparently not subject to the kinds of stringent standards ever applied - without a qualm or moment's hesitation, much less a blush or batting of the eye - to their male counterparts...

...and that's before/not even giving due time and attention to the Green Party's ever outspoken 'human rights' spokesperson who just so happens to have been a high-profile lawyer in both Serbia and Rwanda back in the 1990s evidently... And doing precisely what, you quite rightly ask? Why, only defending the indefensible, to wit various and sundry instigators of the ethnic cleansing then taking place in those parts...or, to use common vernacular...a practising, on-the-ground, representative of and for people who had been promoting the genocide then taking place in each respective jurisdiction....

So for the likes of Greens' co-leader Marama Davidson, in her rant and rave (as opposed to gracious, considered and measured speech) in our Parliament today in the aftermath of the dreadful events that occurred here in NZ last Friday...to use it as an excuse for having a serve at colonialism and those who attack people of different religions...without - oh so predictably - ever mentioning the subtle but strong anti-Christian thread now running rampant not only throughout the Middle East (where it's far more explicit and more akin to the sort of anti-semitism once witnessed in the Third Reich and its sister (European) Axis nations), but even showing up more and more prominently throughout Western lands, promoted unapologetically by its mainstream media...while carefully singling out each and every other creed she could think of...when, on a global level, it is hardly arguable whether those of a Christian faith aren't being treated every bit as appallingly as those of the various other faiths she referred to...

...and to then lecture us all about dealing with our own biases and prejudices to rid our world of the awful scourge of so-called 'hate speech' which she and others generally employ for any and every viewpoint that so happens to be at all uncomfortable for her and co...

is just a little bit rich, and then some...

...just for starters, you understand... 

Postscript - upon further reflection...

Having just re-listened to Ms Davidson's parliamentary speech this afternoon (on the relevant TV channel), I must admit the need to temper my comments somewhat majorly...insofar as her speech was - on the whole, by-and-large - actually quite a measured, considered and even gracious one after all...albeit with the selfsame major caveats afore-mentioned...chiefly the double-standards ever applied without a moment's hesitation even to those of a major world religion...though the actual numbers of adherents thereof really oughtn't to make a dime of difference, it's the principle of the matter that does indeed matter - and greatly - to thinking men and women everywhere...

You see, said mainstream media itself this very eve has lost no time at all in getting stuck in boots and high heels and all in slamming the National Party (under its present leader in particular) for allowing the party's (then, but now evidently rescinded) opposition to a major United Nations treaty on immigration NZ had (not quite yet) signed up to...to remain upon the party's website...

...as if each and every viewpoint which could possibly be construed as anti-Muslim (even if only by implication - as if any and every potential immigrant here is of that particular religious persuasion) has now become, ipso facto, like ye proverbial persona non grata...

...which is why I simply have to say that a morning radio talk host, to wit the infamous Mike Hosking himself, is 'right on the money' in this regard...when he stated, in an incisively argued and articulate editorial this morning, that we'll need - *going forward - to be exceedingly careful that we don't use the tragic events of last Friday to shut down legitimate debate and criticism of say party policies upon that (**ever-contentious) matter of immigration...

But sadly, unfortunately, tragically even, I do detect folk going exactly to that particular place already...

*Yes, I hate - detest - that newspeak as well, probably even more than you do, to be honest...

**My phraseology just there, not Mike's.

Post-Postscript:

As far as Facebook's thus far limp-wristed attempts to suggest it was just altogether way too difficult by half to deal with all the inherent issues involved in preventing the ghastly live on-line screening of last Friday's massacre - or rather, to run for cover and not even seek to explicate the inexplicable, or excuse the patently inexcusable...

...as Newstalk ZB host Chris Lynch (and many others) have thus far stated, that's just a little too much to credit...seeing as apparently whenever one seeks to download (or upload - whatever) music one is instantly prevented doing so...without further ado...

...and/or as regular RNZ National panellist Bernard Hickey/Hickie said today, if it's possible to create AI (i.e. artificial intelligence)...then - by logical implication - this should be as well...

...just as (on an altogether mundane level) I'm always intrigued/baffled/dumbfounded/p...ed off, quite frankly...and altogether incredulous moreover,  that in a day and age of the most sophisticated technology imaginable it still takes five-some days to clear ye ole-fashioned cheque...

And in a similar vein, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly today with someone I've had my issues with in times past. Yet in this case - and admittedly I've ever found the 'honourable gentleman' an honest parliamentary broker (which is reasonably high praise from me, anyhow) whatever my disagreements on a sheer policy level - Gerry Brownlie's own criticism thereabouts on Larry Williams' Drive (Show) late this afternoon (not only vis-a-vis, as per Mr Hickie/Hickey, the non-show of Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg a full four days already post the Christchurch massacre, but moreover) vis-a-vis the utter failure of New Zealand's intelligence agencies - after substantial contributions at the end of the last Government's tenure - and with all the means at their disposal, and this dude's apparent high-profile movements (around the world to highly suspect places and moreover upon the internet over preceding months) to even notice him evidently...

...were right on...and yes, nothing less, as he carefully and ably articulated, than a full 'royal commission of inquiry' thereabouts will now suffice to get to the bottom of the intelligence agencies' complete and utter failure to get onto this fellow before he wrought his irrevocable damage...

Post-Post-Postscript:

As to Simon Bridges' (parliamentary contribution today) - and someone on RNZ National's Panel discussion yesterday aft - paraphrasing the late great Dr Martin Luther King...it'd be difficult and I'd be hard pressed to go better than myself re-quoting their comments thereabouts...to wit:

the only way to expel darkness is not with more darkness, but to let in light...

the only way to expel hate is not with more hate, but through love...

After all (is said and done), it was the Master's method...and as such it can't fail...ever...

As might be expected, every last (wo)man and her/his pet canine is getting in on the act...

Yes, I'm *not at all surprised - who would or could be? - and it *doesn't upset me (far from it)...

...but, following New Zealand's "own 9/11", as someone (perfectly understandably) a few minutes ago so aptly described/depicted it...

...and with major connections to my own beloved hometown of Dunedin, NZ, no less...

may I simply say/express the following thoughts...as succinctly (and clearly/understandably) as I know how...

Good on our local Quakers/'Religious Society of Friends' (as the Christian sect in which I was - intermittently and rather sporadically, but let's add 'seminally' - raised/brought up, is officially/formally known)...for - alongside the local Police...who've moreover been earning special plaudits, even brownie points if you will, from one and all for the expeditious, effective and comprehensive manner in which they've dealt with and to what has been generally viewed as our biggest crisis ever - at the very least one of if not our darkest day/s ever...

...in (wo)manning the local Dunedin mosque...to protect 'parishioners' there yesterday seeking to come together to process Friday's 'event', i.e. wholescale massacre of their (one-time, now - for possibly the majority) Christchurch-based fellow worshippers...against any interlopers...and from the woman who regularly drives my Mum to and from the local (Quaker) 'Meeting House', herself involved off and on in this cordon/vigil, evidently a number of honking, or rather passing vehicles with folk shouting out, drove by...hardly an edifying prospect in the circumstances...

However, for the likes of...

#Turkey's President Erdogan to weigh in on the matter is somewhat obscene...as is

#the twitter, evidently, of one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters...i.e. Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens...who apparently - and he's never denied doing so or resiled from the 'remark' - suggested that the well-known and ghastly (Islamic) fatwa against the British writer Salman Rushdie
...is perfectly valid...i.e. any self-respecting Muslim is quite in his or her 'rights'....to 'take him out'!

#And on that score, some of the British protesters marching over the weekend (thereabouts), I'd strongly suspect, are doubtless conspicuously and oh so conveniently silent as a woodmouse whenever it comes to expressing equally vehement sentiments vis-a-vis the bombings and cold-blooded **(group) murders of Christians (and Jews in France in particular) over recent years...mere mention (let alone significant discussion) thereof is seldom made, much less given the due attention and equal footing/condemnation these so obviously deserve/warrant...

...but (my reasonably regular sub-theme these days of) addressing media double-standards is for another day...

On the other hand, full plaudits to former Australian deputy Premier, ***Tim Fischer...for, back in 1997 or 1998, a ****short while following the Tasmanian 'Port Arthur massacre', I believe Aussie's worst ever, alongside then Prime Minister John Howard, moreover, greatly tightening their gun laws...with the incredible result that *****no such mass killings have transpired there since.

*In case of any confusion/misunderstanding, however - admittedly quite possible (upon re-reading my introduction above) - Friday's massacre/cold-blooded murder of 50 Muslims, with, thus far, 50 other fellow-believers injured, while at Friday prayers in two Christchurch mosques - was not only a literal bolt from the blue in what I and many others oftentimes have referred to as "God's Own" [nation] - if, sadly, no longer - but a 'thing' that has upset, even traumatized, kiwis in the extreme...

*For those still dissatisfied with that explanation, my lack of surprise and upset is re people veritably emerging out of the figurative woodwork to put their own oar or two cents' worth in thereabouts...

But being 'not upset', as in not distressed thereabouts, is an altogether different matter than being able to abide fools lightly or gladly...or, as the infamous CJ might have put it in that inimitable British sitcom of yesteryear, 'The Rise and Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'..."I didn't get where I am today by not knowing utter balderdash and uninformed BS when I hear it"...especially from those least - or should that be most? - qualified to give it...no indeed (thus see the various ignoramuses referred to herein.)

**By which I refer to events in Egypt and Indonesia especially, but many and various other jurisdictions could well be included...such as (northern) India and Pakistan - yes, the sheer gall of street protesting Pakistanis lecturing us kiwis about human rights and the like is somewhat rich (to greatly understate matters)...

***Full credit to RNZ National (Radio) here in New Zealand for interviewing him thereabouts (both briefly this very morning, and much more comprehensively a few years back - following yet another American shooting).

****Indeed Yours Truly happened around the selfsame time to move temporarily to Kingston/ Huonville, Tasmania...and later Pelverata, Hobart and Geeveston (while I sojourned just 13 months there all up) - curiously enough, on my previous Australian sojourn (for a year-and-a-half in Brisbane in 1990/1991), while away from home (Dunedin, God's Own)...David Gray down the bay at Aramoana likewise 'let 'er all rip' (with equally devastating consequences)...

*****Though please don't quote me on the technicalities of that claim, for I'd tend to agree with you if, in your own considered view, you seriously queried as to what actually constituted a mass killing (thus implying that even two folk thus murdered in cold blood was such), or even that there's no real qualitative - if not quantitative - difference between one person thus butchered...and a score.

Postscript [Personal Explanation]:

My own apologies are also warranted...and there's no time like the present, as they say - vis-a-vis naively being willing/prepared to give that Aussie 'nut-case' Senator Anning 'the benefit of the doubt' awhile ago...in a moment of fair gullibility on my part...though even so, I did qualify said commendation, or rather hesitant support, significantly at the time...

Suffice for now to say that his immediate response post-Friday was unbefitting - even for a politician (which is surely saying something...though, as I indicate above, a ******few true gems do emerge from that cesspit occasionally). And while I haven't an *******issue/real problem with a (physically) cornered politico responding in kind i.e. defending himself...Anning surely went to the nth degree, and then some, in trying to crack ye ole acorn with a sledgehammer...and really taking to that young 'un who had the gall - nous and aplomb rather! - to crack a couple well-aimed eggs over his head...

And good on that 'kid' for utilizing such a tactic in the best traditions of democratic protest...

 ******By which (whom) I refer to Tim Fischer in particular...

*******Such as Aotearoa-New Zealand's dear old Sir Robert ('Piggy') Muldoon in decades gone by.

Friday March 15th, 2019: The Afternoon (Day) Aotearoa-New Zealand - Unwittingly - Lost Its Innocence...Rest In Peace, 'God's Own'

Back...Back...Back...-No 'Stopping' Allowed-...to the Brits' Interminable Brexit: A Few Penultimate Ruminations Thereabouts

My personal - and that doubtless of many U K 'brexiteers' - hope and ideal? A clean break from Europe...no ifs, buts or maybes considered. Fulfil the sacredly-entrusted mandate bequeathed by the people of the United Kingdom...and get on with it - like yesterday, i.e. two years, eight-and-two-thirds months ago now... Nuff said!

For the British to unilaterally leave the European Union without any deal whatsoever...which, with the ever-prescient benefit of hindsight, some (such as Yours Truly - and the 'hard Brexiteers') had not only fervently wished and even hoped against hope they'd do, but moreover believed they ought to have done...at the very outset...i.e. immediately post-referendum 2016...

I.e. as - quite arguably - the British/United Kingdom public, 'declared' (as per the June 23rd referendum result they delivered their politicians)...thus leaving the EU with absolutely no strings attached...

*But she don't look like happening anytime soon...least of all today, more's the pity...- and thus and so, as Prime Minister Teresa May (and others) have well said, **''without [TM's) deal there may well [ultimately] be no deal and no Brexit whatsoever"... -but more upon that (sorry, sad and supremely sordid) state of affairs shortly...

Nevertheless, as I blogged on December 13th last...precisely three months ago (and may well also have done two months ago as well - sorry, I've simply lost count (of the sheer number much less timing of all such posts), but that seems a reasonable enough likelihood)...one cannot but admire Ms May for her dogged determination, come what may - be that hell, high water or ye proverbial tsunami even - to see this through to (what increasingly appears) the bitter end...to secure some/a/any sort of deal...with the ever-irascible, eminently unreasonable and downright intransigent leaders of the European Union - in particular Messrs Juncker and Tusk (and their assorted 'negotiating' team) ...

Yes, P. M. May has been making an ****all-out, Herculean effort - of Olympian proportions - a marathon endurance feat even, up to the very last week, day, hour, minute and even moment, quite literally down to the very wire - to get it over the line... Returning "croaky" from more last-minute EU negotiations - as fellow Conservative M.P. Nigel Evans puts it - and thereby showing she's at wit's and strength's end (even her husband is evidently in the parliamentary gallery at Westminster this very day) she's 'determined to *****get the - some - deal over the line, damn it!

As British (TV/radio?) "producer" Stuart/Stewart Hughes has just now (9.10ff NZ-time) shared with Newstalk ZB talkback host Kerre-Woodham-McIvor, Prime Minister May had [hoped - and (being a ******vicar's daughter) doubtless prayed!] "it'd reach the crunch point where people would have become so heartily sick and tired (of the whole shemozzle) that they'd simply agree to her deal." But [alas], that hasn't happened." And a later emailer"It'll never happen because it (i.e. the Brexit agreed upon at the referendum) will never happen because it'll never be allowed to happen...

For a brief (minorly diversionary) interlude upon selfsame subject - though right up to the minute, in terms of being immediately following the renewed voting down of Teresa May's 'new deal' by the British Parliament - the U K's High Commissioner to New Zealand, Laura Clark, talking with RNZ National's Suzie Ferguson, admitted "It looks *******messy, but it's a very big sovereignty and constitutional issue that the British are dealing with here."

Personally I - and I can well imagine a sizable and not inconsiderable proportion of leave voters - would have hoped that Boris Johnson, among others, would have risen to the occasion, seeing the all-too-graphic and evident writing on the wall for the utter demise of Brexit come very much more pushing and shoving, delay and delay and delay, negotiation and renegotiation seemingly ad nauseum - of the whole stinking, sordid mass and mess - and become the statesman the one-time justly named Great Britain ever seems to see rise to the surface when the occasion demands...

And accept Teresa May's admittedly extremely flawed deal...rather than hold out indefinitely, in a Custer's Last Stand sort of stance, for a 'hard', no strings attached Brexit...realizing that the ideal is ever the enemy of the real[istic]...the opposite side of the coin to the equally valid idea that the good is oftentimes the enemy of the best...  And thus and so, ever holding out - doggedly and determinedly - for dear life and for all-or-nothing, come no matter what...so that ultimately the very thing you so desired never ever even happens at all...

So what do the (other, continental) Europeans make of the whole sorry saga? According to reporters checking in with the BBC World Radio's OS Show this morning (NZ time), they're as equally ********confused by this unedifying and unprecedented spectacle (my paraphrase, even original wording)..."The technical aspects now also of interest?" asked an incredulous Nuala McGovern of the reporter there. "Indeed - yes! That's the level of interest with which Italians are following it."

'In her own words,' as a concurrent news bulletin declares, "My Government/Parliament is committed to delivering the referendum result the British people voted for...and I believe the deal I've achieved with the European Union is the best way of securing that." But this having now again been soundly rejected (by U K parliamentarians), "What's indeed the point," intoned Richard Quest with Mike Hosking around 7.10 a.m., "then of going back to the EU...and asking in reference to that [i.e. yet another additional extension, were it even approved by the UK Parliament tomorrow]? What indeed?!

Perhaps the final words should go to a tackback host whom I seldom listen in to, the aforementioned Kerre Woodham-McIvor, who, summing up the entire sorry scenario, commentated (around 10.08 a.m.), that there's "no consensus [whatsoever] between the main (U K political) parties...everybody's apparently fighting (for) their own corner...(&) there's no real way of knowing what's happening next." "Cometh the hour, cometh the (wo)man?" Apparently not, there's no-one even in sight...

But moving on from that relevant summary of the complete drama, perhaps the very last words ought to be given to a former British statesman, who - unlike his, in many respects, indomitable female carbon copy, Margaret Thatcher, approximately a half-century later - was inclined to support the 'European Project' after WW11 came to its rather ghastly, blood-soaked conclusion...yet ever opposed, incidentally, and quite significantly, the European-uniting and global designs of that aptly-designated master of Machiavellianism, or *********'Third World Antichrist', German Chancellor/ Fuhrer Adolf Hitler himself...

*And as of 6.45ish NZ-time apparently, according to Nigel Evans, himself a (now dissenting) member of the hard brexiteers' 'European Research Project', both they and the Northern Irish D(emocratic) U(nion) P(arty) have just announced against the deal...thus ensuring/guaranteeing its failure in just over an hour's time...as has, of course, now transpired...  Yes, as Mr Evans well recognizes - and his fellow Brexiteers seem to have completely forgotten - the much-coveted Brexit may now not only not occur, as - successively - one after another of P M May's parliamentary proposals are roundly voted down (today and tomorrow)...her deal, leaving without a deal, any more extension...

...and even, horror of horrors (to those who cherish participatory democracy - however much it goes against one's personal wishes/preferences; hey, it's called 'democracy, folks! - another election and/or referendum is henceforth likely to be triggered...but hey, why should that one be binding (cf to the present one)? Oh, I understand...because it'll deliver the result that suits your particular views!

Some, and I'm among them, would call that a matter of anti-democratic tendencies reigning supreme  
- not only leaving a vast swathe of Britons ultimately unhappy...who actually do believe in real-deal participatory democracy, that is... Which, as that great statesman of Great Britain's yesteryear just referred to well said...as a system of government is really awful...except for all the others. Indeed!

**Indeed, as ***Rod Little - talking with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking just now (8.30ish, 13/3) has just declared, today's (just announced) vote (rejecting May's deal) has "effectively seen the (entire) end of Brexit altogether"...tonight's "the last nail in the coffin"...and so the U K is "now moving closer and closer to a second referendum...in which the question(s) asked will be gerrymandered" (i.e. towards a 'no brexit' result)... And as a later emailer expressed things on the Kerre McIvor show, "It (i.e. the Brexit agreed upon at the referendum)'ll never happen because it'll never be allowed to happen...the British [elites] will ensure it won't...and will [so word things] - i.e. in the oft-proposed '2nd referendum' - that it won't...

***As Mr Little so well puts it - on such matters as not only the Brexit but LGBT issues - it's not necessarily a sure/done thing (my own paraphrase) that a second referendum - properly worded (i.e. vis-a-vis leaving without any deal whatsoever etc) - would necessarily lose...but on this/these issue/s "the U K Parliament/elites has/have shown it/they is/are well out of [sync] with the British public." And as Mr Little was subsequently quoted on ZB's 10 a.m. bulletin as saying, "There's a very real possibility that it'll never even happen now...(essentially) because the British Parliament and even Government never wanted it anyway."

****Indeed, as an emailer/texter to the Mike Hosking programme just (8.30 a.m.ff NZtime) Ms May has effectively gone to the nth degree and beyond (to secure and ensure some sort of deal)...

*****To - unwittingly - paraphrase this one-time high school student newspaper editor's own predicament, or rather an oh-so-apt assessment thereof via a funny as (and wonderfully-caricatured) cartoon thereabouts...vis-a-vis Yours Truly's own (near Herculean and Olympian) 'efforts to get this paper out, damn it!' (In Mercury #102(?), my final issue, I believe.)

******As, according to that ever-popular nightly British TV quiz show, 'the Chase', evidently were likewise one or two previous U K prime ministers, I believe both Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown.

*******However eminently reasonable-sounding she was in her tone, that'd surely have to go down for the most understated, euphemistic assessment of the ongoing, seemingly never-ending constitutional crisis/fiasco which is Brexit that would even be imaginable!

********Or methinks perplexed, baffled, bamboozled, bedazzled...would likely be more apt...especially re all the ins and outs and outs and ins of the so-called Irish 'backstop'...and apparently I'm by no means alone in that...  Plus completely, frustratingly round-the-bendable...

*********As graphically depicted - with extraordinary clarity and utterly convincing prophetic insight even - in a brilliant box-set (or two) entitled: 'The Nostradamus Effect' and 'Nostradamus:2012', I happened to stumble upon back in, you guessed it, that year the world was predicted to end...(i.e.on December 21) 2012...though, curiously enough - however much asserted by critics (of 'prophecies' and the like contained therein) - not actually - necessarily - asserted therein. 

Postscript (vis-a-vis brief remarks of European Union leaders thereabouts - as reported by Cindy (?Kew) on today's midday 'World Watch' on RNZ National... "There'll be no further concessions by the EU"? Really? That's a piece of straight out fake news if I ever hear it; they've only ever given diddly squat...from the very get-go...

FANONOMEN: A Bit of Light Relief (as a needed break from el usual gloom & doom): i.e. For A Nephew Of No Mean Notoriety...on the birth of a wee bitty baby boy

I simply cannot get beyond/do better than my good ole childhood favourite, to wit The Sneetches AND OTHER STORIES...

...and in particular story #3 (of 4)...i.e. 'Too Many Daves'

As only *Dr Suess could put it - admittedly, without his equally inimitable illustrations:

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave?

Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one and calls out, "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!"

This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves'
As you can imagine, with so many Daves.
And often she wishes that, when they were born,
She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And one of them Snimm.
And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim.
And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey.
And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.
Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.
And one of them Ziggy. And one Soggy Muff.
One Buffalo Bill. And one Biffalo Buff.
And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed.
And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed.
And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt.
And one of them Oliver Bolivar Butt
And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate...
But she didn't do it. And now it's too late.

(Italics, capitalizations and highlighted letters all Dr Suess'.)

*Theodore Geissel in real life, who died not all that long back (in his native France) at a good old age (into his 100s).

Necessary Disclaimer/Postscript:

In our oh-so-uptight era when folk are only too willing to, as (many believe) the Good Book prophesies (oh so aptly) of our last days generation, **watch for iniquity...[and]...make a man an offender for a word, I here and now apologize to anyone not so blessed...that is, by being christened Dave...or (as I at least prefer), David...

...Hey, folks, we can't all be so lucky/blessed out of our socks, can we!

**Isaiah 29:20-21.

P.P.S. As of last Friday March the 8th I understand said 'wee bitty baby boy' has at last been named... Ihaka Harry...which, transliterated, is, I understand, 'Isaac Harry'...

...after no-one/no persons in particular evidently...

When the War Arrives upon our own Precious Shores... Hey, That's When the Rubber Really Hits the Road: Returning S/I Fellow-Travellers...and What Exactly Ought any Self-Respecting Nation To Do About It?

When posting my blogpost recently upon the one-time Sissii International '*child'-bride seeking re-entry to the United Kingdom...little did I know or imagine that God's Own would shortly thereafter be facing/confronting its own version of the aforesaid...

...but truth, as they say, is ever stranger than fiction...

So let me pose the question: which trumps the other...fulfilling every last jot and tittle of the strictest letter of the law, or transgressing this where absolutely necessary in order to achieve a far greater good - i.e. safeguarding the wellbeing of the citizenry whose essential interests you have been sacredly charged with preserving and ensuring?

It's certainly a thing worth considering in this context, as **they say that the fundamental duty and responsibility of any legitimate government...when it is all boiled down...is to give its citizens proper protection and security (and thus the critical role of the police and armed forces in any civilized land).

So then, just what exactly does any self-respecting government (truly worth its weight) do (in such circumstances)? I.e. 'let 'im back' (***as much/most Western law requires) or revoke their (his or her) citizenship?

*Though methinks it a little inconsistent and quite frankly disingenuous that the very same sorts of people (some tend to label as extremely naive do-gooders) invariably use that term beseeching innate (childhood) 'rights' for such youth in the one breath, and then in the very next claim every conceivable adult privilege for the selfsame adolescents...

...like all true dreamers (and ivory castle builders), ever wanting ****'to have their cake and eat it too'... 

**Especially libertarian types, for whom I have much understanding and respect, and considerable ideological fellow-feeling...

***As per some international treaty on repatriation and the non-revokable right of citizenship.

****A lifelong motto I've ever been attached to, seeing as 'it takes one to know one'...and coming to me as it did from a great 'ole British gentleman who almost remarried my Mum after my Dad left her...

Part Two: (The Day After!) Tomorrow: My Own (not altogether surprising) Verdict Thereabouts...('coz unless I get some early shuteye during our ongoing summer heatwave - from either heaven or hell, depending upon one's perspective - I reckon I'm gonna go even crazier than some might presently regard me...and as Smeagol-Gollum might put matters, "[That] ain't a decent [prospect]!")

And yes, four days (rather than just one or two) on...

Now it simply won't do/suffice to protest/pretend - way after the fact - that one really didn't mean anything by one's actions...that one didn't actually understand quite what one was getting in to...when signing up to an outfit which has sent shivers down the spines of most ordinary folk (in media-saturated lands) across the globe (over the past half dozen or so years)...

hey, it's way to late for that kinda 'benefit of hindsight' sort of thing...

No, a much more pertinent 'thing' - that the rest of us are well entitled - to ask you, is

what the hell did you even think you were getting involved in (in the first place)...moving halfway around the world to a civil-war-wracked nation daily imploding ever further whilst seeing literally millions of refugees spilling out of its shores across the Middle East and Europe thus creating by far the worst refugee crisis to wrack our world since WW11? And please, oh please, whatever else you do, don't tell us - your erstwhile fellow countrymen and women (and kids) - that you weren't aware of, let alone personally involved with, the barbarities being daily, even hourly perpetrated by the sort of company you'd thus chosen to keep...

Sorry, it simply won't wash...for one solitary split-second even... What d'ya take us all for? And what particular shower did you come down with? No, I mean, really?

Sure, if one is kidnapped or otherwise 'taken' against one's will and forced to participate (i.e. against one's will) in savagery and barbarous acts...one then can claim some sort of 'out', so the theory goes. But sorry, even then I simply don't buy it - I just can't buy that kind of 'reasoning'...

For the selfsame 'argument' is ever used in regular cases of kidnapping and extortion and the like. You mean you're trying to tell me that if a gun was pointed at your head - either literally or 'just' metaphorically - and you were told that if you refused to follow orders your own kith and kin, your beloved parents and/or spouse, your children or close relatives or 'bosom buddies' would be simply blown to smithereens...then you'd do as you were told?

Hey, in that case you're even worse than a butcher...you're a moral coward and traitor to all those you should hold dear...and have no deep-laden, undying loyalty to them when push comes to shove.
Just as people in Nazi Germany and other Axis-sympathizing nations throughout wartime Europe either chose - at the cost of their very lives - to stand true to their persecuted Jewish relatives, friends and neighbours...or - ultimately - didn't...

No, no matter how difficult and unpleasant the choice may be, one always has a choice in times of trouble. No-one can be 'forced' to do anything...for one ever and always has the possibility to refuse ...and yes, if it eventually and ultimately comes down to it, one can even die rather than do wrong, or, far more nobly still, can give one's life to save the life or lives of those one truly loves...

And as the legendary Christian singer Keith Green once put it...I know Someone just like that...and He's your best friend, He really is...

...and unlike the afore-alluded to false friend or betrayer of sacred trusts - or lackey in a devilish drama of our times - when He sees the wolf coming (for His flock) He doesn't abandon them & flee for dear life...but stays and defends them, if necessary to the bitter end...even giving His own life if need be to save the sheep...

And as that selfsame Good Book puts it so well, greater love than that has no (mortal) man...