Tauranga Top Town Nonsense

I have nothing against the Top Town concept, in fact it can be quite entertaining, EXCEPT for the fact that the teams will be paid to compete by the local COUNCILS - or should I say RATEPAYERS.

I don't know how the teams were funded in the past, but I can't imagine the local council fronted up with $30,000 for a few locals to play some silly games - no matter how prestigious the title!

This is the figure Tauranga City Mayor Stuart Crosby said it would cost to enter Tauranga into the Top Town competition.

The Tauranga mayor said that Tauranga will not win the Top Town competition this year because the council was not funding a team to compete.

Here is my letter in reply

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Whatever shall we do? The mayor says Tauranga won’t win top town because “the council is not paying!”
This is the unadulterated bollocks* you are fed by unprincipled socialists. This is what you have been brainwashed to accept as “normal! Well here is some news! It is not moral, it is corrupt!
You have been led to believe that because council or government does not fund something that it will not get done, and that if it is not funded (via money taken from other people against their will) by council you will not win! Peoples minds have been turned to mush by government molesters-of-the-mind (schools) This kind of public conditioning makes my stomach churn.
I believe the contrary! That a town NOT funded by its council is more likely to win! Why? Because if a group of determined individuals have to put their heart and soul into fundraising and getting together what it takes to compete, they are not going to go there for a holiday - they will be going there to WIN! - to gain the maximum return for their efforts Whereas a council-funded team who don’t have to raise anything, apart from their arm to take other peoples cash have nothing to lose. They simply hold out their hand for another cheque next year.

The mayor should end the lolly-scramle for ratepayers money on frivolities and do everything he can to help , not impede his employers (ratepayers) in achieving their recreational pursuits.

In these days of economic recession mayors should be looking for ways to “reduce” spending instead of looking for “new” ways to spend money that is not theirs

There are many ways council could assist those wishing to compete in Top Town without resorting to rape and pillage of the ratepayers beforehand.

Kiwis go in for massochism in a big way as yet another armed holdup for cigarettes

At the risk of saying "I told you so!" - I predict this will happen many many more times

So not only are the people who you pay to protect you actually inflicting this harm upon you, they are now prosecuting you FOR defending yourself and your property.

WHY DO YOU KEEP GIVING THEM YOUR PERMISSION TO DO THIS!

ARE YOU CRAZY?

Is this some new trend in masochism?

When are you all going to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH or are you all secretly enjoying this pain you are inflicting upon yourselves?

Whangarei Council strike again

The Whangarei council has a reputation as being an officious, unreasonable and petty collection of small-minded bureaucrats as ever was assembled in New Zealand, and now I have witnessed them in action, and concur that they are worthy of that reputation!

As a performer in the recent, highly successful Jazz and blues festival held there, I listened with a feeling of deja vu to tales of their petty bureaucracy and aloof attitudes as dealt out to the volunteers organising the event

This is exactly the same treatment the Tauranga council gave the organisers of their festival for over 25 years before realising that it would not go away (even after their best efforts to destroy it) and finally decided to co-operate and get behind it, and now it is the longest-running jazz festival in the southern hemisphere, and brings in more revenue to the city than any other event, and whats more it doesn't cost the council (or should I say ratepayers) a cent!

In Whangarei for over a decade now, a bunch of dedicated volunteers have been made to jump hurdles and wade through endless energy and money-draining bureacracy to put on an event that brings hundreds of people to the area (in off-peak times and during a recession) - all with money in their pockets - to spend at local restaurants, cafes, bars and accommodation.

Next year, do the people that pay your wages a favour! Try co-operating with festival organisers, failing that, just get out of the way, cut the red-tape, remove the hurdles from their path and let them get on with delivering a festival the city can be proud of.

Whatever you do, please do not mistake this suggestion for "interfering or trying to say how it should be run!" You are a council - not an entertainment agency - you will just make things worse! Leave it to the people to whom it matters, and are passionate about the music.

Not that I speak for the festival committee, but I shouldn't be surprised if they would be happy for you to "stick" the miserly amount of funding you donated as a token of appeasement." It would be worth more than the paltry sum you gave them to not have to deal with you and your stifling bureaucracy!

Then, in a few years, when the festival is a huge success gaining international participation and recognition, you will be able to take all the credit for it - just like the Tauranga council did!


I would like to thank all the sponsors, the venues, the organisers, and all the people they employed - sound technicians, security, extra bar and waiting staff, etc, and give a big boooo to your council.

If this was an assessment of your performance I would give you an F-.

Please try harder next time!

It will take more than petty, dogmatic bureaucracy to kill the spirit and dedication of true music lovers - Amen to that.

When is a right not a right?

In his attempt to appear rational John Reid is adding up one plus one, and upon arriving at the inevitable answer (which he does not like,) desperately tries to justify coming to three! This is a perfect example why the state should not be entrusted with educating our children.

I am not debating rights, I am stating facts! and if there is one thing I have learnt it is “You may IGNORE the facts, but you cannot ignore the CONSEQUENCES of ignoring the facts!”

John says “most would agree that all have a right to be fed and housed!” This is incorrect! Where does such a right come from? There is no such “right.”

The dictionary says the “WORD” rights means “something you are entitled to,” but that is not the “MEANING of RIGHTS!” and I stand by my previous statement that “a right is something that you do not have to ask somebody elses permission for!”

You have the right to breath and think (although many chose not to use the second option!) because you do not have to ask permission from anybody to do them. You do NOT have a RIGHT to an education, or free health care, or welfare or a letter in a newspaper because these are things that you must be given.

When these so-called rights are given to you by a government, the ability for them to do this necessitates they must first take the property from somebody else. They are given to you at somebody elses disadvantage! These are not rights, they are privileges.

Generations have now been led to believe - via a government-run education system - that these are now rights!

Politicians are notorious for doing things that people do not like, so they give them a new name so it doesn’t sound so bad ie - stealing Telecoms property was called “unbundling” and taking a portion of peoples wages every week under threats of fines or jail if they do not comply is called tax and not theft!

Irresponsible people having children they cannot afford to feed are taking - by force - food from the mouths of my children - please explain why I should not object to this?

How many children I chose to have is nobody elses business as long as I am prepared to provide for them, and do not place the burden of their upkeep on somebody else. If I choose to work 80 hours a week that is my business - not yours. I recommend a prescription of “mind-your-own-business" to remedy the ailment from which you, and a large number of busybodies in this country are suffering.