I've been watching this issue unfold since it was first announced by the
publicity and promotions company Markson Sparks! that they were
bringing World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Mike Tyson, to Australia and
New Zealand in November 2012 to speak about his life. Tyson is
reported to have said, "I'm so excited to be visiting Australia and New
Zealand for the first time. I have lots of friends there and look
forward to meeting all my fans."
Sorry Mr Tyson but lots of people don't like you. Or what you stand for.
Normally convicted rapists wouldn't get a visa into Aotearoa/New Zealand
but National MP for Waimakariri, Kate Wilkinson, had decided to allow
for a dispensation for Tyson, but this dispensation was revoked on the
3rd of October after the youth charity which originally backed his
appearance at the Auckland event no longer wanted to have anything to
do with the visit. The promoters [apparently determined to inflict us
with this unrepentant rapist] applied for a new visa after a second
community group, the Manakau Urban Authority, said it would support the
application in exchange for him talking to at-risk youth.
I'm fascinated (in a horrified way) with this take on Mike Tyson by one Michael Woods who writes,
"he has done the emotional and spiritual reconstruction to the extent
that his misdeeds are now seen as the missteps of wayward youth ... a
time period which perhaps lasted a decade or two longer than the average
tenure as a teen troublemaker."
Rape described as a misstep of wayward youth? Really? I would think
describing rape as an act of brutal violence a more realistic appraisal.
I think Metiria Turei (co-leader of the Greens Party) states the position perfectly for New Zealand women.
She says, "When Maori men endorse an unrepentant rapist like Mike
Tyson, it hurts women. [Former Labour MP] John [Tamihere] and [Urban
Maori Authority] Willie [Jackson] should be standing up for their
sisters, mothers, and daughters and fighting to keep Tyson out. Tyson
has repeatedly denied the rape he was convicted of in 1992 and
continued to reveal hateful, misogynistic views about women. As
recently as two months ago Tyson spoke about calling his one man show,
which supposedly details how he has turned his life around, Boxing,
Bitches and Lawsuits. He has joked about Sarah Palin being raped."
Turei further argues, "When Maori male leaders tell
young Maori that men like Tyson are role models it puts young Maori
men, and the women they care about at risk. One in four women suffer
sexual abuse and Maori women are even more at risk. John and Willie
should be standing up for their sisters, mothers, and daughters and
fighting to keep Tyson out. The Green Party believes
in restorative justice, the ability for offenders to acknowledge the
harm they have done and turn their lives around [but] Tyson has
repeatedly denied the rape he was convicted of and reveals himself as an
angry, violent man."
I'd like to make these points.
There are a lot of people out there in the world who do bad things to to
other people, get convicted, and then get rehabilitated. I get that. I
believe in rehabilitation. Most of the time I don't think enough is
done to rehabilitate prisoners. But let's get just the rules clear. Mike
Tyson got a dispensation purely because he is famous. Metiria Turei's
statement makes it very clear that the jury should still be out on
whether Mike Tyson is truly rehabilitated and repentant. It doesn't
sound like it.
Another thing. I am quite sure we have plenty of rehabilitated criminals
in our own country without bring some other country's rapist in. To
motivate our youth. Words fail ...
Oh and by the way, Tickets to attend this awesome motivational
speechifying from Mike Tyson were going to cos $69NZ. So our wayward
Kiwi youth were going to have to have plenty of dollars to spare had
this ridiculous charade gone ahead. Which it isn't, thank goodness. The
second visa application has been denied.
He is not rehabilitated, as you say. He continues to deny the rape (but not that there were relations between the two). He is calling her a liar despite her physical injuries. He continues to promote an activity, boxing, which is a violent "sport" and which young men tend to emulate. He was treated like a prince in prison, and, by his own account, had relations with one of the female guards.
ReplyDeleteHe spent three years in prison for the rape and nearly two more after an incident in which he assaulted 2 people in an episode of "road rage". I would say his whole life has been an episode of rage. He famously bit part of the ear off his opponent in the boxing ring and that is what ended his career.
Keep him out of New Zealand. He is a self-centered evil man and should experience the condemnation of the civilized world.
I am quite sure there are reasons in his background for this rage but one can't be rehabilitated until one takes personal responsibility for the actions they took. In this instance I am as disgusted with the promoters of this charade as I am with him for trying to make out they are bringing this show to help our youth rather than just filling their own wallets with money from the gullible.
DeleteI believe the decision has now been made to refuse his visa. To Aotearoa/New Zealand that is. Apparently Aussie still gets the tour.
You know, everytime someone comments on this post across the 3 sites there is more added to the story and the picture building up of this man becomes more horrible than I had realised.
Mike Tyson does not deserve the title of warrior, as those in the boxing world used to call him. A "warrior" doesn't rape and attack innocent and unprepared people. He is a sick man who should have received help long ago. It's to bad that he was in the one sport that encourages rage over any kind of cooperation.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly doesn't seem to be well-placed in his life as far as gaining any self awareness goes and perhaps even deserves some compassion because the sycophants around him are probably encouraging him in any forms of belief that will further line their own pockets. He is being used and exploited, that is his tragedy perhaps.
DeleteMike Tyson is not somebody I would want anywhere near me either.The reason he doesn't ever have to face the consequences of his actions of course is that he is a celebrity.
ReplyDeleteIn other words another vacuous corporate cash cow whose gardian angel is the promoter who made millions from him being a punchbag and now makes still more money from him being a bad boy.
This is precisely the role model the philistine politicians, banksters and infotainment brainwashing executives want for our young people.
Tyson is a role model because he represents America plc today, he is a living exemplar of the brand America Inc.....he is rich, brutal and vainglorious what better figurehead for Global Nato and the Project for the New American Century....so far as the Emperors of Greater Bilderbergia are concerned, Tyson is the veritable high point of masculine evolution, the violent, lusting psychopath that sums up what America plc has become in the world.
Well done to NZ to deny him entry, who the hell does he think he is?....Oh yeah a Master of the Universe of course, I almost forgot... Australia is already a compliant vassal state of Washington totally occupied by the forces of Greater Bilderberia, which means that there isn't a single politician in Australia with the guts to resist having Tyson foisted on the vulnerable youth there anyway, a corporate advertising scam by the gangsters who would like to run the world.
Good result....nobody needs a Tyson.
I couldn't have put it better myself. We are in complete agreement today.
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