Sir Bob Jones - does reading equate to wisdom.

I have recently been referred to an opinion piece written by property developer, Sir Bob Jones. I thought I would share it for those who had not seen it because it is an enlightening read.

Here in Sir Bob’s own words:

Since I learnt to read, I’ve averaged a minimum 8 hours daily in this pursuit of both entertainment and information. In total that adds up over my life-time to circa 240,000 hours I have spent with my nose in a book, magazine or newspaper.

I can unhesitatingly say that never in that time have I read such world-class meaningless, pretentious drivel as a half page article over the names of Sir Bob Harvey and Sir Ian Taylor, published recently in the NZ Herald.

Inexplicably, periodically lapsing into maori, the guts of the article was how to boost Auckland by attracting entrepreneurs, toursists and whoever to the city.

Constantly quoting as an example, the mythical figure of Maui who fished up the North I Island they propose the creation on the waterfront of a museum outlining “the greatest story in the history of human migration”( I’m not making this up) namely the arrival of the first maori navigators here, “guided by the stars”.

There is more and I will share that later, but I will come in here to assure Sir Bob that I was not making anything up.

The quote was not mine, or Sir Bob (the Harvey one). It comes from Professor Lisa Matissoo-Smith, a biological anthropologist and geneticist who is a leading figure in the study of human evolution, migration, and population genetics.

Her study “From Africa to Aotearoa” explored how the first human populations migrated from Africa, eventually settling in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Matissoo-Smith’s research drew on mitochondrial DNA (mtaDNA) and Y-chromosome DNA. These genetic markers, as I am sure Sir Bob will be aware after 240,000 hours of reading, enables scientists to trace lineage and migration paths over thousands of years.

Which is exactly what Professor Mattisso-Smith did.

Sir Bob then went on to observe that;

A navigator is someone providing the directions to a known destination, which is most certainly not how the first maori arrivals can be described.

I can only assume from this statement that Sir Bob has based his knowledge of pacific voyaging and celestial navigation on the Goldie painting featured above – called - “The Arrival of the Māori in New Zealand.”

Sir Bob seems to be unaware, blissfully ignorant perhaps, that the term Māori was not used to describe the indigenous people of this land until European’s had arrived, more than 500 years after they did. The first arrivals were from the Pacific Islands, the culmination of what Professor Matisoo-Smith describes as “the greatest story in the history of human migration.”? A 3,500-year story that included travelling to South America because that is the only place they could have found the kumara.

In his 240,000 hours of reading Sir Bob has clearly not bothered himself with exploring where myths and legends come from. The story of Maui was passed down over centuries before Aotearoa was discovered. It was not so much a myth as the oral transfer of knowledge gathered over centuries, without the written word, that ultimately meant that Kupe was indeed travelling to a land he knew was there. It was the final piece in the puzzle of the Pacific Ocean, Te Moana nui-a-kiwa, the largest expanse of open water on the planet. The jawbone of his grandmother that he used to hook the fish represented the oral history that had been transferred over centuries by our kuia, our grandmothers, to those seeking answers, the Maui’s, the questioners, of which Kupe was one. The fish that rose from the water was the land that rose into view as he crossed the horizon.

In 2019, as part of the Tuia 250 commemoration of the arrival of Captain Cook to New Zealand in 1769, a waka hourua, a double hulled waka, called the Fa’afaite travelled the 4,500 kms from Tahiti to Aotearoa New Zealand guided by two celestial navigators who used nothing but the stars, sun and ocean currents to make the journey. This isn’t something I read about – it’s something we recorded on film throughout the entire journey while we also used our Around the World Yacht Race technology to track them in real time.

Incidentally, Captain Cook actually picked up a Tahitian Celestial navigator called Tupaia, to help him find his way to New Zealand.

But, as dismissive as he was of the scientific findings of Professor Matisoo-Smith, Sir Bob truly excelled himself with his Trumpian ?“weaving” as he headed into the completely disconnected topic of – well I leave it to him:

“I have the answer to save them (Sir Bob and (Sir Ian) from furthering embarrassing foolishness. They should acquire a mistress: one each at first to open the batting then a few more to build a small stable which preoccupation will hopefully help them regain their plainly lost sanity.

One suspects if they have wives, these long-suffering women, assuming they cop this crap on the home front, will be hugely relieved to escape listening to further such nonsense and will happily encourage them in this new pursuit.”

WEIRD huh. Sir Bob does have me on all fronts here because I have only had the one wife now for over 40 year, and I will have to bow to his expertise on the matter of mistresses. I think I might have even known one ( in the platonic sense) back in my days at Victoria University.

You can find the full article here: https://nopunchespulled.com/2024/09/23/world-class-tosh-2/