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June 19, 2016
No amount of dollars will be able to fix what happened to Teina Pora
Waatea Team
Posted On June 19, 2016
No amount of dollars will be able to fix what happened to Teina Pora
WILLIE JACKSON OPINION:
The very famous Chief Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish Indians said in the 1800's to the American President the following:
“How can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people”.
This is a magnificent description of life and I was reminded of this by Mana Leader Hone Harawira when we tried to put a value on the price of a life lost which has been the tragic story of Teina Pora.
Hone and one of Teina’s biggest supporters Tim McKinney, a former detective who worked as an investigator as part of Pora’s legal team appeared on our Waatea 5th Estate show that has been a nightly fixture on Waatea and Face TV. Last week we were also joined by David Clendon from the Green Party and Murray Gibson who was David Dougherty’s lawyer who was wrongly imprisoned for rape.
All of us were of the view that Teina Pora had not been compensated appropriately, twenty one years in jail and $2.5million plus an apology just doesn’t seem to add up. Hone’s points about what Chief Seattle said just seemed so right, but the other view he gave also resonated. That was that the Crown should also buy a house and pay his bills, pay for his children and grand children’s education and make sure his spiritual and physical wellbeing is taken care of for the next twenty one years. I couldn’t agree more. To just hand cash across doesn’t seem right and obviously $2.5million is at least $1.5million off the mark when inflation is taken into account.
However no amount of dollars will be able to fix what happened to Teina Pora. It is one of the most disgusting things that any New Zealand citizen has had to endure. To be fitted up by the police should have us asking questions about how corrupt some members in this organisation have been in the past. What was so shocking was that so many in South Auckland were aware of Teina’s innocence and knew who really committed the rape and murder of Susan Burdett but the cops didn’t want to know.
Tim McKinney knew this and the shame of it all was that it took so long for anyone else to believe him. I know the police are a much better group today let’s hope that we never see another case like Teina Pora.
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