How Jolly Jimmy plays a perfect villain
The America’s Cup always throws up heroes and villains – and this time it’s personal. Which is why Oracle’s smug Aussie skipper is public enemy No 1.
2013, and a further 975 Pacific Islanders moved from Auckland to the South Island during the same period.
And they’re not just coming from Auckland. Work approvals figures released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment show 1273 work visas were approved for Pacific Islanders to work in Auckland in 2016-2017, while 1208 were approved for Pacific Islanders to work in the regions.
Ofa Boyle believes these movements of people goes even further than what plain statistics might illustrate.
‘‘There’s always new families arriving here,’’ Boyle said.
‘‘When we ask where they come from, it’s always Auckland.’’
There were 500 Pacific Islanders recorded as living in Oamaru in 2013, but that figure would now be closer to 2000.
The main motivations for shifting from Auckland to regional centres were job availability, escaping overcrowding and being closer to family, Boyle said.
While the new arrivals are bringing their own foods and customs, they tend to integrate well.
But she worried that mass migration of Pacific Islanders to the regions could recreate the overcrowding issues experienced by many families in Auckland.
‘‘We have applied for emergency housing for many Pacific families,’’ she said.
Growth in the general Pacific Islander population in the regions is reflected in the expansion of individual Island communities.
The Tongan Society of South Canterbury has seen numbers swell from 40 founding members last year to more than 120.
Secretary Pauline-Jean Luyten said Tongans were coming to South Canterbury to work in places like the meatworks and the fisheries.
President Siesina Latu said they were staying because there was a strong sense of community in Timaru, which she attributed to a strong sense of family and Christian spirituality among Tongans. USUALLY the bad guy wears black.
From Jack Palance’s cowboy in the classic western Shane to Star Wars’ Darth Vader, that’s how it’s been.
But for the past three weeks another shade of villain has been looming: a villain who comes in a shade of orange, speaks with an Australian accent, and is familiar from four years ago. Because, for the next week at least, Oracle Team USA’s America’s Cup skipper Jimmy Spithill will undoubtedly be public enemy number 1 as he renews his campaign to crush sportsmad New Zealanders.
Sure there are the Lions tests against the All Blacks from next weekend, but if most Kiwi rugby fans were honest, they’d admit to a quiet confidence for a series win. Furthermore, many would actually want the Lions to do well so that it’s a tough series.
But this 35th edition of the America’s Cup is different. New Zealanders need a win badly – desperately even.
Sure, the other teams in the challenger series had names of countries attached to them, but they just seemed as an add-on to the logo. Of the roughly 10 million people who live in Sweden, I wonder how many knew they had a team in the challenger series finals.
But here, even Kiwis who – like me – have barely set foot on a yacht in their whole lives, actually feel a part of Team New Zealand. This is personal.
Winning would be awesome not just because of the feel good factor and the potential millions for the economy that could be generated if a future Cup defence was held in Aotearoa waters. But because four years ago in San Francisco during the last America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand were on the wrong side of perhaps the greatest comeback in the history of sport.
Let’s force ourselves to revisit what happened. Our team needed just one more win. They were everyone’s favourites. Even the local Americans wanted them to beat Oracle Team USA.
It had been a tough few cups for Team New Zealand since losing to Alinghi in 2003 and the public’s interest had seemed to have quietly drifted away from the world’s oldest sporting contest.
After racing to an 8-1 lead in San Francisco, all that was changed and the people came rushing back. But then jolly Jimmy Spithill and his team went to work and the rest is embarrassing sporting history. Jolly Jimmy wasted no time to start basking in our pain and has seemed to revel in it constantly ever since. We thought that lowpoint marked the end of Team New Zealand, as their government funding was pulled. But here they are in the big dance again, and, once again, on the other side, is that smug, leering countenance of Jimmy Spithill.
Part of what makes Spithill a great villain is that he’s so good at what he does. We all know he’s the favourite. He talks a big game but only because he walks it comfortably. After all, this is a guy who a few years ago took flying lessons so he could better understand the dynamics of sailing.
Spithill could become only the fourth skipper in the cup’s 166-year history to win it three times. He’s on the brink of international sailing greatness and could even surpass his boss Russell Coutts.
But he knows the fickle nature of his chosen sport. Even last America’s Cup Spithill remarked of the result: ‘‘One day you are a rooster, the next day you’re the feather duster.’’
Standing in his way in Bermuda is our team, skippered by a young man in Peter Burling who seems cut from the same calm, unflappable cloth they use to make all great New Zealand champions.
Here’s hoping that this time around, Spithill’s not crowing so loud, or it will be a long four years.
There’s always new families arriving here . . . When we ask where they come from, it’s always Auckland.’ OFA BOYLE