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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER STICKS HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH IN CANNIBALISM FLAP
NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER STICKS HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH IN CANNIBALISM FLAP
May 15 2010
Auckland, New Zealand – Holding ones tongue has always been an art for politicians. Successful leaders, no matter the level, always know what to say and when to say it. They hold their tongue, they say one thing when they really mean something
else, and they are constantly aware of their surroundings, making sure to never say something that could be taken out of context. Well, that is true of most successful politicians. Occasionally honesty is rewarded but those instances are rare. Lies tend to carry the day.
When a person becomes the elected leader of a nation, any nation, the general assumption is that they have been for a good part of their life a very good liar, that they have been able to develop the skill and the instinct to successfully navigate the obstacles that would undo a normal person who would buckle under the pressure of honesty. Such does not appear to be the case with John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand who has caught himself in a more than minor controversy after making a joke about a particular ethnic group in his country. The joke involved a particularly sore spot for the Maori people – cannibalism – and has critics eating him alive and many wondering why they elected him in the first place.
“The good news is that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their neighbouring iwi, which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been dinner, which wouldn't have been quite so attractive,” Key said at a dinner meeting. He later apologized. “Ah look, it was a light-hearted joke, a bit of self-deprecating humour - but if anyone is offended, then I deeply apologise.”
Of course members of the offended tribe aren’t taking the comments in the light they were apparently intended, citing a longstanding opposition to cannibalism and an ingrained sense of prejudice felt by native peoples all over the world, and are now asking for his head.
“I'm just astounded that the prime minister can make light of what we regard as a very, very serious situation regarding ... our future relationships with the Crown. I don't think it's becoming at all of a prime minister,” said Tamati Kruger of the Tuhoe tribe. “It gives me the sense that whatever we say or do he will never, ever take it seriously. He is affirming a rigidness which is not really in the spirit of good faith negotiations. He is really going to force Tuhoe into a position that makes us look like the bad guys.”
Of course history is with the Prime Minister. Though cannibalism has fallen out of favour in the country in recent years, that particular tribe has long been associated with the Boyd Massacre in which 66 foreign sailors were killed and eaten by the local peoples in 1809. That incident is still considered one of the most famous incidents of cannibalism in history.
“The issue here isn’t whether or not the Maori are eating people, it’s whether or not politicians should be making jokes about it. Obviously they are going to be sensitive about the past, and even more sensitive if it is still going on, but criticism is always going to be heavy when the leader of the country is making the jokes. His feet are being held to the fire now and quite rightly so,” said Scrape TV Political analyst Gabriel Kinsey. “Of course this could have a positive outcome. It could light a fire under the Prime Minister and get him to truly see the truth of the situation and bring about some kind of resolution. Sometimes conflict is exactly what is needed to cook up a whole new relationship.”
Despite the controversy, Key is still on fire in the polls.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
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