Mangroves

I have nothing against mangroves at all. Nor do I have anything against pohutokawas. But they are trees for God's sake and bloody common ones at that. A few acres of mangroves here and there serve a good function - protect against erosion, provide habitats for all sorts of things (most of which, again, are incredibly common) etc. But if they start growing out of control you deal to them and don't start worshipping them. Same with pohutakawas - there's billions of the b*st*rds - all very pretty around Xmas (not so endearing a couple of weeks later, but never mind) and an asset to the place. But if one or two are in the way of something sensible that you want to do - nuke them. I-t-'-s a t-r-e-e.

The trouble with people who lay down in front of bulldozers that are advancing on a stand of mangroves is they have lost all sense of balance. On or off, black or white and nothing in between. I think they have an intense dislike of people - especially mainstream normal people. If you are from an ethnic minority with questionable sexual orientation and a disability of some sort you might pass muster. But, if you really want to get in their good books, you're much better off being a damned tree or an aquatic mammal. They are nuts. They pick the eyes out of the bits of modern life that suit them (the Greens prided themselves on running a Hi-tech election campaign in 2005 with their manifesto on a CD ROM) and treat all the rest that doesn't suit their warped view of the world with the same affection they reserve for weapons grade plutonium.

The thing that really gets up my nose, though, is that these loonies are not harmless buffoons just to be laughed at - if that were the case they would add value to life - on a par with Fawlty Towers and Blackadder. These cretins have the ear of government (NZ has signed the Kyoto protocol remember) and are actually part of government. MMP politics allows for this sort of nonsense and has a lot to answer for

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