By Poneke, which is an old transliteration of Port Nicholson ("Port Nicky"), the council PR flunkies obviously mean Wellington. Where this leaves Te Whanganui-a-Tara, which is the more commonly used Maori name for Wellington these days, isn’t clear. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up.
Anyway, the press statement went on to explain that the Action Plan is part of “Te Atakura First to Zero framework” and is aligned with something called the Tupiki Ora strategy. “It is an integrated, co-ordinated approach across Council to support food systems’ shifts in business-as-usual workstreams”.
What this means in everyday language is anyone’s guess. The statement was heavy on buzzwords – “resilient”, “sustainable”, “equitable”, “culturally appropriate” – with the mandatory references to climate change and social justice. Wellington City Council isn’t quite the madhouse that it was in the last term but there are still some flaky operators in the council chamber and deputy mayor Laurie Foon, who issued the press statement, is apparently one of them.
There’s a strange, Year Zero quality to pronouncements like these. They are so freighted with ideological jargon that it can be almost impossible to work out what they actually mean in practical terms. But what they do reveal, vividly, is that council bureaucracies have become highly politicised and detached from the pressing everyday concerns of ratepayers.
As an aside, I used to work with Richard MacLean, who for many years has been the Wellington City Council media manager. He was a good newspaper reporter and a very funny man with a highly developed sense of the ridiculous. As a journalist, he would have laughed heartily at this sort of bullshit.
The encouraging thing is that people have grown wise to woke PR flannel. The comments under the press release on the Scoop website oozed cynicism. TrevorH, for example, wrote: “What is ‘soil sovereignty in relation to the cultural landscapes’? [Yes, that’s a line from the press statement.] Does any of this psychobabble have any relationship to reality whatsoever?”
There was a lot more in a similar vein. Ian Apperley commented: “I often wonder if the WCC can produce even more gibberish, and then they prove to me that they can.” Someone called Barb added: “New logo for WCC should be 110 per cent B.S.”.
Interestingly, no one commented on the use of te reo in the press statement (and also on the council website, where it takes precedence over English). Presumably that's because it's now taken as a given.
For the record, Maori make up 8.6 percent of Wellington's population.
Karl du Fresne, a freelance journalist, is the former editor of The Dominion newspaper. He blogs at karldufresne.blogspot.co.nz.
What this means in everyday language is anyone’s guess. The statement was heavy on buzzwords – “resilient”, “sustainable”, “equitable”, “culturally appropriate” – with the mandatory references to climate change and social justice. Wellington City Council isn’t quite the madhouse that it was in the last term but there are still some flaky operators in the council chamber and deputy mayor Laurie Foon, who issued the press statement, is apparently one of them.
There’s a strange, Year Zero quality to pronouncements like these. They are so freighted with ideological jargon that it can be almost impossible to work out what they actually mean in practical terms. But what they do reveal, vividly, is that council bureaucracies have become highly politicised and detached from the pressing everyday concerns of ratepayers.
As an aside, I used to work with Richard MacLean, who for many years has been the Wellington City Council media manager. He was a good newspaper reporter and a very funny man with a highly developed sense of the ridiculous. As a journalist, he would have laughed heartily at this sort of bullshit.
The encouraging thing is that people have grown wise to woke PR flannel. The comments under the press release on the Scoop website oozed cynicism. TrevorH, for example, wrote: “What is ‘soil sovereignty in relation to the cultural landscapes’? [Yes, that’s a line from the press statement.] Does any of this psychobabble have any relationship to reality whatsoever?”
There was a lot more in a similar vein. Ian Apperley commented: “I often wonder if the WCC can produce even more gibberish, and then they prove to me that they can.” Someone called Barb added: “New logo for WCC should be 110 per cent B.S.”.
Interestingly, no one commented on the use of te reo in the press statement (and also on the council website, where it takes precedence over English). Presumably that's because it's now taken as a given.
For the record, Maori make up 8.6 percent of Wellington's population.
Karl du Fresne, a freelance journalist, is the former editor of The Dominion newspaper. He blogs at karldufresne.blogspot.co.nz.
7 comments:
It wouldn't be quite so bad, but virtually every government- concocted Maori phrase is a combo of actual and made-up words that, when translated, is as close to the English name as our next nearest star is to us.
They are also terribly long-winded, unable to pronounce and entirely forgettable. So nobody uses them.
The only thing they do well is confuse, as you try to read this government menglish, which is scattered liberally through policy documents.
That's obviously deliberate, despite Labour's recent legislation to promote clear, simple language in official documents. They don't want the average person to understand the Left-wing, separatist tosh they're proposing and if you complain they call you a racist.
Another thing for TinTin for pretend to sort out!
Use ‘Maori’ as most
People don’t understand it but that way they have still been informed because’Maori’ is an official language.
The rate payers of Wellington might want to get rid of these woke waste of spaces and reduce their enormous rate rise.
Oops sorry, they like it. They voted for it.
Let’s rename Wellington, Wokington.
Near all my reading through the ages has been confined to technical and non fiction. Have read most of Churchill. But even when forced at school to read Jane Eyre and Pickwick Papers I had no problems comprehending. But modern govt and Council releases are a whole new challenge. A whole new language pervades. Presumably the product of make work "arts" and social "sciences" courses, including Maori Studies. Attempting to unfathom is so exhausting most give up. Thus all manner of outlandish proposals are effectively sanctioned and established. The recent Plain Speech act or whatever allowed waffle in the spirit of the Treaty or somesuch so its main great potential usefulness is completely thwarted.
So, I take it this gibberish is something about a large foodbank that will feed us all when we've spent that last dollar and got to zero? No? Whatever - it's just a load of virtue signalling tosh and am only thankful that I'm not a Wellington ratepayer. However, I suspect my local Council is likely to be afflicted by the same nonsense soon enough. After all, they all have an inflation target to meet and being thrifty isn't on the agenda when virtue is at stake.
What is so excruciatingly tragic about this plethora of ordure chucked about by the WCC (oh the irony of those first two letters) is that the perps are untouchable. With all due respect, plus a bit more, to Mr du Fresne, what he has opined will pass largely unheeded by those at whom it is aimed.
And it's not just the local or national bureaucracies such as the Min of Ed (just visit your local school's website for elaboration), the corporate sector is at it as well! It is oh-so-trendy to use Te Reo, from a smattering (just as I have done) to a deluge, much of it straight from the Tower of Babel, in the emetic belief that it somehow proves cultural acceptance and integration.
Welcome to the Khmer Republic of Wellington. Planning my exit while I still can.
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