Sunday 17 May 2015

Massive Crowds fail to appear at Christchurch Flag exercise.



Is this yet another super success story? First there was hair pulling now there is flag waving:

Christchurch is New Zealand’s second largest city…the government would have spent at least or over fifty thousand dollars to hire a site, ship in the star performers, pay for heaps of TV, newspaper and radio ads, yet the people stayed away in their droves: The dreaming organisers laid out hundreds of chairs in great anticipation of mass attendance…the highly paid front-line and strange panel of experts[?] took their place on the stage and they even delayed the kick off time in the vain hope that a much needed crowd to would save face and would fill at least the front row…but alas, the Prime Ministers dream project was to kick off with a fizz rather than a show piece event.

The Prime Minister was keenly awaiting with great expectation in Wellington for the text news with pictures, of the massive success of his wonderful and much beloved ‘Flag changing policy’ that would see his royal imperative etched into the history of New Zealand forever. His PR squad had fully drafted a public statement about how delighted he was to see such a massive crowd turn out for this first public discussion of his dazzling and brilliant news manufactured exercise. He had practiced its presentation twice earlier in the day…getting feedback from Cam Slater and Paul Henry…they said he sounded great [as they always do].

In fact when he was informed by a anxious GCSB agent that the police numbers outside the venue were double the size of the crowd, he turned a lighter shade of pale, even lighter than when his wife told him to stop grabbing that waitresses pony tail, and believe me that’s one hell of a pale shade of blue.
Massive crowd of five supports PMs change of flag meetings.

The first of a series of public meetings about the New Zealand flag referendum was held today in Christchurch.
The hope is to encourage public involvement in the process ahead of the vote, but hardly anyone turned up.

The first of a series of Hui around whether to change the New Zealand flag was noticeably empty this afternoon – not what the Flag Consideration Panel hoped for the national road show, which kicked off this weekend in Christchurch.

"Our panel is there to get people engaged and talking about it ahead of the referendum, so that when people come to vote on it they'll have an understanding of a) the process and b) the issues involved," says Flag Consideration Panel chairperson Professor John Burrows.

"It's the first time in the history of this country that people have ever been asked officially to consider their flag, and although we're not entirely sure of this it's one of the first times in the history of the world," says Professor Burrows.

"I'm saddened at one level that there seems to be quite a bit of reluctance to engage in the conversation," says Hana O'Regan of the Flag Consideration Panel.

This whole process is expected to cost upward of $25 million.

The road show also chatted to the public in a major shopping mall.

But Denis Hampton who takes to the streets every day to fly the current flag stole their thunder when he said about the present flag:

"It has grown with me and I'm well aware of its long history in New Zealand," says Mr Hampton. "I see nothing wrong with it and I believe it's an excellent flag for our country."

This is the first of a number of hui to take place around the country. The final vote by the public on the New Zealand flag is expected to take place early next year.

Reference: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/low-turnout-for-first-public-flag-change-meeting-2015051716#ixzz3aNShORSk

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