G'dday Russell
You say
> I see the rugby-induced NZ political crisis rolls on (in our gleeful press
> anyway). Apparently they lost because the national anthem was sung in
> English!
The NZ national anthem sung at rugby games is rarely sung in Maori -
virtually never at test matches - At League matches its not uncommon to here
a verse sung in Maori or on one occasion that I recall a Maori and English
version.
> Interestingly, rugby was very much a black game here in the Eastern Cape.
> You'll find that most political activists here were either local rugby stars
> or boxers - or both.
One thing I've found interesting in the whole league/rugby thing is the
differing class base of the two codes. While probably more diluted than
previously the equation still seems to hold that league is a working class,
and in New Zealand, Polynesian game while rugby is more dominated by the
white middle class. You might not notice this by looking at the all blacks
but even a cursory glance at the administration shows a decided lack of
brown faces - perhaps this explains the difficulty experienced by pacific
island nations in getting a team(s) into the tri nations or super 12 comps.
> You may be right but my experience of much of the NZ "left" who have invaded
> (strictly a relative term)SA as volunteers since 1994, indicates that even
> Tony Blair is also quite a radical in comparison with some of these people.
I'd be interested to know what you mean by this, not because I've taken
offence or anything like that but because I have been involved in the
left/anti racist movement here for sometime, and work with guys who have
been involved with running courses in SA for various unions in the recent
past, and felt we mostly had a good rep overseas. Consequently I'd be
worried if my erstwhile comrades where marauding about doing 'ugly American'
imitations.
Cheers
Bill Cochrane