Some fun from New Zealand

Someone is a bit too outspoken for their own good

"Writing "fake Maori" on their faces with marker pen tattoos to attract tourists has landed a Kiwi tour operator in hot water. The venture, called Discovery Heritage Centre, has admitted hiring Europeans, including French and Israelis, to dress in traditional Maori outfits and poke their tongues out in Maori war dance custom to lure tourists from cruise ships.

The director of the company has added fuel to the fire by saying she's only employing the "fakes" because Maori people in the North Island New Zealand town of Tauranga are too lazy to work. "Some of our Maori are too slack to promote themselves. Some of our Maori are too lazy to get out of bed to do that," Terina Puriri told the Herald on Sunday. "They don't turn up and it's a known thing for Tauranga Maori to do that."

The company provides "cultural liaison" and on-board dance performances for cruise ship tourists. Performers include a few authentic part-indigenous people and at least three foreigners dressed in feathered robes, holding traditional wooden weapons and with pen marks scrawled on their faces.

Ms Puriri said she had no problem using foreigners, adding that tourists didn't mind because they "love us purely because we are proud of (Maori) culture and we look beautiful".

Source

From the surname I gather that Ms Puriri is herself Maori or part Maori. Maoris are Polynesians -- like native Hawaiians




More fun from New Zealand

We read:

"An advertisement for a "midget" or "large-chested woman" to act as a beer wench has landed some New Zealand sports fans in controversy. The men placed an ad for a "beer bitch" to fetch cold drinks for them at the Rugby Sevens in Wellington next month. The lucky woman would be rewarded with "cuddles and shoulder rides", wrote the men, who run a blog called When in Rome Bro.

The ad outraged the organisation Little People of New Zealand, with spokeswoman Caela Brackenbury telling The Dominion Post newspaper it was hurtful to refer to small people as midgets. "It goes along on par with the word 'n*gger'. It's seen in that light," said Ms Brackenbury, whose organisation's motto is "Walk tall".[LOL!]

It seemed many others agreed. The ad was pulled off website Trade Me after 27 complaints were received.

But 11 women found no fault with it, enthusiastically applying for the gig with photographs and blurbs about their "bubbly" nature. Cake decorator Melissa Tapa told the Post she applied for the job to meet new people and try something different, and did not believe the ad was discriminatory. "I'm not a PC person," the young woman said.

Source

Posted by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).