Opinion

Funny Pronunciation

Visitors to these shores, particularly those with English as a second language will find the way auto cue readers pronounce words quite odd. Most of us get our news via the TV set and listening to the strange machinations of highly paid newsreaders doubtless confused no end.

A town I lived in many years ago is known as Whakatane – pronounce by the locals like this: Wok-a-tarn-ee. Nowadays or at least since the PC brigade took control of education in this country it is Fok-a-tarn-ee. Maoris who are migrants like the rest of us but according to legend arrived a few centuries earlier than the Europeans had no written language. The gilt ridden PC academics decided there should be recognition of these stone age people so started a very expensive campaign to infuse into the language a maorified version of everything they could get their hands on.

The fact only about 10% of the population identify themselves with that ancestry and probably only 10% of them can speak the language is neither here nor there. There are even government departments who’s sole purpose it to invent maori words from the english derivative. One prominent journalist wrote some time ago about the fact we are all mongrels, that while true really upset the chattering class.

The crime statistics show half the prison population are maoris. You don’t need a PhD in calculus to figure there is something wrong. Clearly there has to be a disincentive to pursue a career in crime.

Here is a simple straightforward procedure that requires little alteration to the system. Funded by the reduction in recidivism.

6.00 am out of bed for a 10 km run. Rain, hail or shine. If they can’t run at the start they walk for an hour until they can – no exceptions.

7.00 am after a shower they get breakfast. Then it is into the classroom for the rest of the morning. They learn english and everything they played truant from at school only they can’t get away this time. Compulsory reading (homework if you will - which they get tested on for privileges) among other books is Marc Alexander’s ‘Justice with both eyes open’ and Greg Newbolt’s books.

12.00 pm lunch: Then they go to a two hour public speaking class run like a Toastmasters youth leadership programme, this is where they learn to communicate verbally instead of physically. Everybody is involved so they can’t hide from doing their part in it.

3.00 pm smoko: Only there is no smoking, alcohol or drugs, they are all banned and they go ‘cold turkey’ for the entire time they are in there. (remember Frank Sinatra in ‘the man with the golden arm’?) There aren’t any soft doctors or limp wristed, dewey eyed, gilt ridden PC shrinks to lean on and if any cuzzies bring anything in for them the dogs’ll find it. That’ll mean a loss of privileges.  After smoko they work in the garden or workshop depending what they have earned.

5.00 pm dinner: After dinner if their team has earned some privileges they can watch TV, play cards, play snooker, listen to music, study etc, till bedtime.

I forgot to tell you, they are randomly allotted to a team of six and the team earn privileges. The team members could be a car thief, a child molester, a fraudster, two opposing gang members and a paedophile for example. The privileges are related to their behaviour, work ethic, commitment and involvement. That’s how things work in the real world so what better way to prepare them than start here. Initially the judges will explain in detail how the system works. After all we are paying them around $200,000 a year from the public purse so we want value for our tax dollars. Their legal representative will do likewise (at about $200.00 an hour – from the public purse) as will the prosecutor and when they get to jail the warden will get it all signed off with each page initialled. There will then be no excuse for not knowing what precedes them and how they are going to be treated for the duration.

If one steps out of line and gets a bit of solitary the whole team loses all their privileges and start to earn them again when the one that transgressed returns from detention.

This is self policing and designed to make crime an unattractive career option.

A question you will ask is what happens to the dysfunction one who plays at behaving for the duration and goes back to crime as soon as he gets out. This isn’t a perfect world we live in, there are people who should never be released. What I do suspect is those sort of people just won’t be able to behave for the number of years they are incarcerated and will show early in the piece their true colours. If we reduce the recidivist rate from the current 70+% down only by [say] 20% there will be millions of savings from your pocket. Surely it must be worth a try!

Lou Harrison-Smith is the moderator of this website.