Garth George: Haden's redneck views hardly unique

Andy Haden. Photo / Sarah Ivey

So Andy Haden has "resigned" as a Rugby World Cup ambassador. Well, I never. But irrespective of whether he fell or was pushed, he should never have been placed in the position in the first place.

Ambassadors are people trained in the art of dissimulation and practised at long-winded circumlocution by which they spend hours saying nothing at all.

Mr Haden's not like that. As he said himself, talking about his comments on women who chase after sportsmen:

"I have always believed in saying what I think ... and it's a sad day for society when people such as I are unable to express what we believe without a media beat-up from those with sectional interests."

Fair enough, but it also pays to engage the brain before putting the mouth in gear, and to keep some thoughts to oneself except, perhaps, in trusted company.

In fact, Mr Haden should have been red-carded for his first outburst when he alleged that the Crusaders rugby team had a three-man ration on what he called "darkies". Not only was this stupid because it was patently wrong, but one wonders at his use of a peculiarly American racial epithet when there are several homegrown ones available.

He came across as an unreconstructed 1980s redneck racist and that alone, in view of the multi-racial event he was supposedly to represent, should have had him fired. Although it has to be said that he is simply one among tens of thousands of middle-aged Pakeha males and females who think and talk privately the same way, and whose attitude to our brown brothers and sisters is incorrigible and will go with them to the grave.

I see and hear a lot of that in my neck of the woods, where the percentage of the population that is Maori is higher than anywhere else in the nation.

Just the other day I was talking fishing with such a middle-aged Pakeha male, canvassing the various lakes and the best spots on and around them to cast a line, when he launched into a tirade about "those effing Maori" who "now own the effing lakes" and "want to screw every effing dollar out of us fishermen".

This sort of conversation, or variations on that theme, is far more common than we would like to admit in these days when "multi-culturalism" is one of the most popular, albeit the most misinterpreted and misunderstood, fashions of the day.

Not that those who indulge in it are wholly to blame, for there are far too many Maori whose words, behaviour and body language display a supercilious arrogance and an unmistakable contempt for Pakeha and folk of other ethnicity.

You see it almost every day, for instance, at pedestrian crossings where some Maori deliberately saunter slowly across and you can almost hear them saying to themselves, "Ha, ha whitey, you have to wait for me". There are worse examples, particularly among snooty staff at tourist attractions.

Whether this is just another product of the victim mentality which many Maori seem to absorb at the breast, or whether it's simply evidence of a massive inferiority complex, it certainly grates once you've been confronted by it for the umpteenth time.

As for Mr Haden's defence of Robin Brooke, I have a lot of sympathy for him and with him. Surely it is perfectly logical to acknowledge that if female groupies attach themselves to sportsmen, drink with them and take them home, chances are they'll end up screwed.

Not that Mr Brooke's behaviour was anything else but reprehensible since at the time he was newly married. Nevertheless, even 12 years ago Mr Brooke would have been only one of hundreds, if not thousands, of married men who were in someone else's bed on the night in question.

The perennial publicity given to the off-field behaviour of testosterone-fuelled rugby - and particularly Australian rugby league - players in recent years should surely have warned any sports-loving young woman to stay well away unless she is prepared to go all the way.

And, once again, one has to wonder why it has taken well over a decade for this complaint to be made and why the media should make such a meal of it.

One has to wonder, too, at the naivete of rape victim advocate Louise Nicholas who said that rugby players needed to be prepared for groupies and walk away from situations that could go awry.

Surely, in this day and age of prolific casual sex, she has to be joking. Don't women have as much, if not more, responsibility for keeping themselves away from unwelcome male attention?

Anyway, I'm sure Mr Haden thoroughly enjoyed many of the soccer World Cup games we've had on the TV for the past few weeks. All those players falling over and crying foul would surely have reminded him fondly of the test he played in against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park back in 1978.

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