Hone puts the H in hate

Hone, Hone Hone… or as we white mo-fos like to say… John, John John!
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira's unscheduled side trip to Paris during a taxpayer funded work trip last month would probably have hardly caused a ripple of publicity if he had kept his head down. But that is not Hone's style and the brown stuff (and no; that is not a racist reference) really hit the fan when he opened his big, belligerent mouth – or more correctly – pushed the send button on an angry, hate-filled email.
Quite frankly I have no problem that Hone bunked what was most likely a tedious meeting in Brussels, so he and his wife Hilda could spend a day in Paris. Who cares? What difference did it make? And at least he actually paid for the extra travel himself.
Yet, when the little Paris sojourn was discovered by the media, Hone was typically unrepentant about his actions. Saying he missed nothing by skipping the meeting as he had already met those attending it and had discussed issues with them.
When first questioned about it, Hone accepted the trip to Paris was "outside the boundaries, “but I don't feel uncomfortable with it". In fact, Hone said he was glad he had undertaken the side trip, saying it would have been "dumb" not to visit such a wonderful city.
While he may now have to pay back some of the trip's overall costs after he skipped the Brussels meeting, that is now the least of his - or the Maori Party’s - problems.
Leader Tariana Turia had said she was concerned about how Mr Harawira's actions would reflect on the party. Well if poor old Tariana was concerned about how his bunk in Brussels would go down with the public – she will have been worried silly by his angry email defending his actions.
Hone reacted with racist, hate-fuelled reply to an email from Buddy Mikaere criticising him for bunking off a work trip to visit Paris, by lashing out at white people.
Mr Mikaere, a Maori Party supporter, had emailed Harawira an innocent enough two sentence message: "Gotta ask the question eh? who's paying for Hilda?"
Hone wrote back and his email didn’t pull any punches;
"Gee Buddy; do you believe that white man bullshit too do you? White motherfuckers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit."
He then went on to say how much time and energy he put into fighting for Maori and what a big role his wife Hilda played in that.
"And quite frankly, I don't give a shit what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?"
Mr Mikaere accepted Hone’s less than diplomatic challenge and leaked the email exchange to the media.
As I said earlier, I do not begrudge Hone his little side trip to Paris and nor do I care. However, we can’t have our MPs running around sending off offensive and racist rants.
Mind you poor old Hone did not have much of a chance to be anything but bitter and angry about Pakeha – given he has been suckled at the breast of and raised to believe this to be true by his bitter and angry mother!
Notwithstanding Titiwhai’s enlightened outlook on life, it is still unacceptable for a Maori MP to claim that ‘white mother fuckers have been raping and ripping off Maori for years’; just as it would be for a Pakeha MP to suggest that ‘brown mother fuckers have been raping white woman and ripping off the benefit for years’.
How long do you think an MP called John Smith would have survive in any other political party if he had expressed the latter sentiment?
Hone needs brought back in line by the leadership of the Maori Party and pretty damn quickly. Not just for his stupid, offensive and racist attitude, but also for his lack of political nous and dumb move to send this email in the first place.
As any politician worth his or her salt well knows – especially in today’s media savvy world – if you put it down on paper; it will end up in the paper!
Mind you, this white, mo-fo is not holding my breath that we will see any meaningful apology or change in attitude – perhaps I am too busy raping and ripping off Maori to give a toss.
Perhaps it is time for a change of scenery? I hear Paris is lovely this time of year, eh Hone!