High-profile New Zealand media personalities are refusing to back down from using Maori words in their prime-time broadcasting, despite hundreds of complaints from English speakers who say they feel excluded by the use of the language, also known as Te Reo.
Newshub presenter Kanoa Lloyd, who is of Maori descent, first began introducing Te Reo words to her weather reports in 2015 and immediately received a weekly torrent of complaints and online abuse.
Many listeners said they were unhappy with Lloyd referring to New Zealand by its Te Reo name of Aotearoa, and to the North and South islands by their Te Reo names of Te Ika-a-Maui and Te Waipounamu.
Lloyd defied her critics and has continued using Te Reo words in her job as cohost of The Project NZ.
Her staunch approach to preserving the indigenous language seems to have inspired other broadcasters to follow suit.
Last year, Radio New Zealand journalists began signing off their reports in Te Reo.
TVNZ presenter Jack Tame uses it regularly on his Breakfast show, as does Morning Report presenter Guyon Espiner.
However, the trend has sparked anger among some viewers.
Morning Report has said it receives about half a dozen complaints on an average day.
“Radio New Zealand — the New Zealand equivalent of the BBC — is supposed to be free of political meddling. Yet now it has been hijacked and its hapless staff obliged to dispense their daily dose of Te Reo,” opinion writer Dave Witherow last week wrote in the Otago Daily Times.
“There were just a few words to begin with. Then longer sentences, which have kept on growing, until the keener young grovelers now begin and end their spiels with expansive swatches of a lingo understood by only a minuscule proportion of their audience,” he said.
On Monday night, Lloyd recorded a passionate two-minute video rebuttal to her detractors, saying: “I actually felt a bit sorry for these guys, sorry the world is moving too fast for you my bros. The change has already happened. The Earth isn’t flat, climate change is real, the treaty was signed, we’re speaking Maori.”
Espiner said he received daily messages from New Zealanders telling him to “stop speaking gibberish,” but has committed to normalizing and encouraging the use of Te Reo through his program, which is listened to by nearly 500,000 New Zealanders every day.
“There does seem to be a lot of people who feel that it [Te Reo] threatens them or they don’t want to hear it ... but we’re going full steam ahead,” Espiner said.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS