Frank Newman: Turkish dancing

It’s so bizarre it’s almost humorous. I am referring to the “we were doing a Turkish dance” defence used by a Hawera kebab shop owner against charges that he assaulted his wife. Fortunately the judge saved the judiciary from humiliation by rejecting the defence as "nonsense and a lie".

According to a media report appearing in the Taranaki Daily News the man claimed he and his wife were engaging in a Turkish dance known as Kolbasti. If he is to be believed, and if eye witness reports are correct, then Kolbasti involves kicking and beating ones dance partner.

According to Wikipedia (who is no doubt the world authority on this matter!) Kolbastı is very popular among the Turks, and “is mostly used for weddings or by youngsters who like to show off and attract girls.” I find it hard to imagine that kicking and beating would be popular with newlyweds (especially on the day of the marriage) even in hard to understand places like Turkey, so I went to another world authority on this matter.

Youtube videos show Kolbasti to be more like genetically engineered Irish dancing than kickboxing. In fact, none of the videos I watched contained punching or kicking (but I guess the kebab takeaways proprietor may have his own rendition; dance is after all an art, and art is anything one wishes to make of it). Here is a video of Kolbasti in action.

As incredibly bizarre as this may seem, there is a serious point to this matter, aside from the assault itself.

Why should we allow new immigrants to remain in this country if they are convicted of a serious crime? Surely for our own protection the citizenship of immigrants should be probationary for say five years from the date of their arrival? If they breach the conditions of that probation (like commit a crime!) they surely should be sent back to their country of origin?