A New Zealand tour operator is in trouble for enlisting Israeli backpackers to entertain tourists by impersonating the native Maori, Australia's ABC news reported on Monday.
Instead of employing Maori, the tour company Discovery Heritage Group, based in the North Island city of Tauranga, paid backpackers visiting from Israel to dress up in feathered robes, draw tattoos in pen on their faces and go aboard cruise ships when they pulled into the Port. The company's director, Terina Puriri, told a local newspaper, that she had no choice but to use fake dancers, because local Maori are so lazy.
9 comments:
Quite enterprising on the part of the backpackers really. Speaking of Maori dancers they may in fact prefer ballroom or tango, but the tourist board needs them on the reservation for added colour. I suppose the Maoris can return the favour by claiming to be one of the lost tribes.
What is it that gave them away?
Anon.
I cant imagine what gave them away since we Israelis are carbon copies of Polynesians and practice Maori battle dances from the kindergarten. We have long tongues and can make fiery faces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lrE2JcO44&feature=related
Probably the real story will be more amusing.
However, although the story is widely reported on the Internet, the real circumstances are, curiously, not reported.
We will see.
Anon.
This is a story embedded in the collective Unbewusste (subconscience) of humanity, that resurfaces once and again in different settings. The first I heard it when someone returned from visiting Israel as a turist and told the story that he recognized the "autoctonous" beduin renting a camel ride in Jerusalem as his childhood buddy, talking "Arabic" with strong Hungarian accent.
I agree, I think this situation would have attracted the attentions off Carl Jung,who might have seen it in archetypal terms, and Marx (I mean Groucho), who might have seen it as life imitating art.
In many ways, there is more to this than meets the eye.
Anon.
The background is that Polynesians are famously averse to work, while Israeli backpackers will dance for money.
There are many elements here to titillate the observer: the self-inflicted ethnic slurs, the differential work ethic, the sheer opportunism, the ludicrous improbability of it all, the aroma of hypocrisy, and above all, the complete naivite and gullibility of the tourists.
"You never lose money by underestimating the intelligence of the general public".
Anon.
There are many elements here to titillate the observer: the self-inflicted ethnic slurs, the differential work ethic, the sheer opportunism, the ludicrous improbability of it all, the aroma of hypocrisy, and above all, the complete naivite and gullibility of the tourists.
"You never lose money by underestimating the intelligence of the general public".
Anon.
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