Politics

Arrived via e-mail

Aaron Bhatnagar appears to have elevated himself to the position of Waiheke enemy number one. While putting together YouTube clips for Waiheke TV News website it became fairly evident that Mr Bhatnagar had engineered a solution that was not achievable by the incumbent (Clean Stream Waiheke), denied speaking rights to the Waiheke community, had opposition councillors denied voting rights and eventually managed to get Clean Stream Waiheke disqualified for canvassing after the tender had closed.

Anyone else notice that Aaron’s hair appeared freshly gelled for the camera. Obviously our man Aaron is a firm believer in the product or he was so excited about destroying Clean Stream that he had his own “Something about Mary moment”

Anyway, we are on to you Aaron,  you cannot unring a bell, the truth will come out.

Read about Mr Bhatnagars electioneering methods here, and view his work here

In Lynley Dodd’s book Schnitzel Von Krumm’s Basketwork, sausage dog, Schnitzel von Krumm, is outraged when his family decides to replace his worn out, beaten up old basket. The new bed doesn’t look right, feel right – or smell right! Something must be done…

It is the way I feel about Waiheke. Every day I leave my Onetangi home, and wander down my gravel path to my car that I can’t get up to the house. The car is covered in pigeon poo because I can’t have a garage. I drive down unformed roads without footpaths or streetlights, to a free carpark in the mud miles from the ferry. I share a ferry with countless others, have a coffee, laugh and tell lots of lies, and about 90 minutes after leaving home,  I arrive at work.

And at the end of the day I just can’t wait to get back. There is something infectious about this island. It gets under your skin, it’s not perfect, but just like Snitzel von Krums old basket, it matters not a bit.

This island fits right, it smells right, it looks right. Its not about curb and channel, its not about wheelie bins or street lights. It’s about the very essence, the wairua, the spirit. It;s about Waiheke.

To the councillors who live in that smelly inhospitable city who have no idea what living in a community is, until you have tried this old smelly basket for size, and have lived here a couple of winters, you can keep your big ideas to yourselves. (and you can keep your wheelie bins and Mt Visy too)

The Cynic

In a key New Zealand defamation case (Lange v Atkinson [2000] 3 NZLR 385), Lange sued political scientist Joe Atkinson for representing him in the magazine North & South as a lazy prime minister. In a 1998 judgment, and on appeal in 2000, the courts affirmed a new qualified privilege for the media to discuss politicians when expressing the criticisms as the “honest opinion” of the author.

It is therefore my opinion that Bill Carrig, and others honestly believe what was written in Bill’s letter. It therefore falls into qualified privilege. It also stands to reason that the Waiheke media should climb out from behind the fear of legal retribution and say it as you believe is true. Nobilangelo is a duly elected community board member and as such is open to grater scrutiny than Mr Joe Public.

Defaming Politicians

While the rest of  Waiheke’s media is wimping out it has been left to Waiheke Radio and Chris Walker to ask the tough questions. On the 7th of March 2009 Chris interviewed the infamous Nobelangelo Ceramalus.

Chris Walker interview with Nobelangelo Ceramalus

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Opinionated Islanders Alan Knight and Mark James

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Chris Walker interview with Denise Roche

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This appeared in my inbox, (thnx Jax) 

25 February 2009

Dear Nobilangelo,

Normally, I neither have the time or the inclination to write an open letter, but I feel compelled to in this instance.

Finding someone who voted for you at the 2007 elections is like trying to get someone to admit they voted for MMP!

Well, I’ll will put my hand up and say I did vote for you. (I can hear the roar of laughter at my momentary act of stupidity from my friends, most of whom are fellow commuters. To them I say, “Live by the sword then die by the sword.”)   

I have however come to realise, this single tick, in my moment of madness, is the most regretted decision, in my entire voting life. Owning up, however, to giving you my tick, gives me the right to tell you what a complete fool you a making of yourself, the Community Board and, by association, the rest of the residents on our beautiful island. You have turned us into a joke – back to the days when we were known as “Cadbury Island” and not as we should be, the “Jewel in the Gulf”.

Let’s recap why I voted for you – you promised good sound governance. Isn’t that what you told me on the ferry? I seem to recall ‘team player’ being mentioned as well. Not some hair brained idea of secession from Auckland City. Did you tell me before I voted for you that you had a personal hidden agenda towards the Auckland City Council? Why didn’t you? Would this have altered my decision? You bet, along with, I suspect, the other 1096 voters – assuming you voted for yourself.

Who knows what the ultimate cost of this will be – estimates range from as low as $100,000 to as high as over $500,000 to a full community vote of over $1million. Now go and mathematically calculate this on a per household basis. In anybody’s language it is not going to be a cost effective exercise in today’s economic climate.

Putting aside for one moment your personal agenda towards Auckland City, let’s think about some of the commercial facts and future media headlines.

“Tourism Auckland withdraws funding from Waiheke”

“Island seniors may possibly lose Super Gold Card travel privileges if Waiheke goes with Thames Coromandel/ Waikato Regional Council”

“Health services review their involvement in Waiheke”’

“Landfill to be established on Waiheke as too costly to transport to the Waikato” 

“Thames-Coromandel Council declines sponsorship of headland-Sculpture on the Gulf”

My message is simple, if you have not already gathered. Stop this lunacy especially in these tough and challenging economic times – or haven’t you noticed?

An overwhelming majority in our community do not want secession from Auckland City – and you know what, you are going to be shown we don’t.

Yours faithfully,

 Bill Carrig

 Authorised and paid for by Bill Carrig, Te Whare Wiremu, 21 Coromandel Road, Sandy Bay, Waiheke Island

Well the election is done and dusted. Winnie is toast and the Greens find themselves trying to save the planet from the opposition benches. It seems to me that as a party whose website states “Only one Party has a clear vision of how we can live a better life while protecting our beautiful planet” that siding with Labour has left them blind. It seems to me that the Greens social agenda was far more important than saving the planet. Why else would they side with Labour. Denise Roche getting 15% for Auckland Central was admirable but no show stopper. Lets see how National goes.

I have had a comment which I feel that while I agree with the sentiment I decided to research the opinion by a closer look at the Greens Website.

Maybe thinking green and acting green is something I will never fully understand. I am standing by my original statement that it will be harder to save the planet from the opposition benches.

If the relationship between Waiheke and the Auckland City Council had been a marriage I am sure it would have ended up in the divorce courts long ago. We have constantly had our purses raided, told what we want and dutifully ignored. With Matiatia development, wharf taxes and wheelie bins as recent examples one can’t help think that Nobby just might be right!