Whatever did we do to deserve this? First earthquakes and floods (with famine and war surely soon to follow?), but now 2017 in New Zealand has hit rock bottom with a visit from Trump’s itinerant oiler and handshaker Rex Tillerson. At least we Kiwis were well prepared to give him a suitably chilly welcome.
Some context: while New Zealand’s relations with the US have been slightly rocky since 1987 when we adopted a nuclear-free policy (and were unceremoniously dumped as a US ally), we are also known for our unnaturally high levels of hospitality and politeness. Until now... Tillerson’s visit, as reported in newspapers around the world, has been greeted with lines of kiwis giving him what we might call a ‘unique local salute comprising the raising of the middle finger in a gesture of elevated alertness’, followed by a very frosty press conference with the New Zealand Prime Minister (who even mentioned the previously unmentionable diplomatic rupture in 1987), all of which took place while protestors outside pelted an effigy of Trump with water-filled condoms.
We are often accused as a nation of engaging in too much polite and indirect communication (lining us up alongside Canadians, Norwegians and inhabitants of Lake Wobegon). But not today! Even the heavens opened to drench Sec Tillerson and give him absolutely no chance of seeing any of our scenery. Message sent Sec Tillerson. New Zealand is not interested in having any kind of warm relationship with the crime family currently inhabiting the White House and pulling out of the Paris Accords has made this bunch of hobbits very angry indeed.
To give the slightly longer version — and DailyKos needs to be maintaining some kind of record of the small, day to day, acts of disrespect and incompetence that this administration performs — the day started poorly with Sec Tillerson having to be helped out of his plane into the teeth of a winter rain storm. Sad! The atmosphere was, in the words of The Guardian, one characterised by ‘unwelcome’.
As the motorcade progressed from Wellington Airport through the city towards parliament and the official reception, it is hard to find out whether a spontaneous protest assembled, or whether some political genius had worked out that having citizen’s lining the streets ‘flipping the bird’ at Tillerson would provide a simple but compelling statement of contempt being shown by citizen’s of a country usually known for our obsessive levels of politeness to visitors and strangers…
New York Times correspondent Gardiner Harris said he had been in a lot of motorcades but even he was taken back by the negative reaction.
"I've been in motorcades for a couple of years now ... I've never seen so many people flip the bird at an American motorcade as I saw today," Harris said.
Harris wasn't the only one who noticed - US protection officers travelling by with Tillerson were overheard joking about the "warm" Wellington welcome.
Arriving at parliament, Greenpeace had prepared their own protest organised with a less-than-subtle message about what was making most New Zealanders angry:
This is born out in a recent survey of kiwis which showed that in a survey of 40,000 inhabitants of my fair home country, the huuge majority are disgusted by Trump. Mind you, we had already worked that out before the election had even taken place.
On to the Press Conference. Our Prime Minister represents a Centre-Right party. Usually when this crowd are in power the first thing they want to do is toady up to Washington and try and repair the diplomatic rupture that happened between our countries in 1987. Not so much today. Prime Minister Bill English was what can only be described as weirdly conflicted about what to say to Tillerson:
“New Zealanders have for a long time not liked various presidents of the US and disagreed with their views about our anti-nuke policies for 30 years – but that doesn’t prevent us confirming our shared values and cooperating with them on security and defence.”
I’m not sure exactly what to make of that and I’m not in the business of defending our current Right-leaning government, but to bring up the 1987 anti-nuclear freeze-out and to actually say that we have ‘for a long time not like various presidents of the US’ is language I’ve just never heard being uttered by an NZ Prime Minister… At least he had good company as even thought we are in the first stages of what will be a bitter parliamentary election campaign in NZ all the opposition parties joined in unison to take shots at Tillerson and Trump about the Paris withdrawal:
Green Party co-leader James Shaw told the crowd New Zealand needed to condemn the withdrawal in the strongest possible terms, given our closest neighbours are at "existential risk", and New Zealand was at risk of more natural disasters.
"I'm inspired by all of you...coming out here in the cold and the wet to condemn the American actions on the day that T-rex, the dinosaur, is visiting New Zealand."
Labour and Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson received a loud cheer when he said the US decision was "immoral and a crime against future generations".
The glorious finale, that caught the eye of various reporters from around the world, was the ritual pelting of an effigy of Trump by protestors hurling condoms filled with water… I can’t authoritatively declare this to be a new trope in kiwi protesting, but many readers of DailyKos will recall that a government minister enjoyed 15 minutes of fame last year when a protestor pelted him with a dildo...
Hopefully Sec Tillerson enjoyed his ride back to the airport… and the last message that your Kiwi Kossack correspondent has to send to you all is that all my many progressive friends in the US are welcome to visit any time you like, but our unequivocal message to the White House is please don't send any more Secretaries of State until at least February, 2021.