Gerry Otimi - Part Two

I promised yesterday a follow-up on my run in with Gerry Otimi 25 years ago. You can find it right here.

I've set up a new blog called "Pump Up D'Angelo" since I've decided to make this blog (the one you're reading now) all about Cheap Sex and other stories.

Gerrard Otimi - I knew him first!!

From Gerry Otimi 19/06/09 1:30 PM

Gerrard Otimi was the top story on the Evening news on both TV networks last night, when it emerged he was the man charging Pacific Island overstayers $500 to stamp their Passports to give them New Zealand citizenship - thereby allowing them to stay in this country.

Well, that's what they thought he was doing but Gerry says otherwise. He says he was merely 'adopting' them into his 'whanau' and offering to help them in their quest for citizenship. Stamping their passports and issuing them with an official (but not) looking citizenship certificate was merely ... Well, I didn't hear his answer on that.

I'll let the Police decide whether he's broken any laws, but knowing Gerry as I do, I'm pretty sure he'll wriggle his way out of it.

My run in with Gerry came back in 1984 when I was promoting Breakdance competitions in Auckland. I held the first competition in 1983 at the Auckland YMCA in '83 and it was huge success. Up until then kids had been breaking/bopping (yes, that's what it was called back then despite revisionists now claiming they were always B-Boys) in the streets and in Auckland there was much consternation from Queen Street retailers about the kids dancing in shop fronts.

I solved that problem by booking the YMCA, putting up $1000 in prize money (a huge sum back then) and charging kids $4 entry ($15 for families of 6). It was MASSIVE!! We packed the place out and it was a great night. History was made, you should have been there. But you were white so probably missed it, right?

Anyway, I was clearly on to something and started organising more competitions. Gerry knew I was on to something too, and started a rival competition. But by virtue of being Maori and calling himself a youth worker (but he ran a calendar business) he went one better. He bent the ear of Auckland Mayor Cath Tizzard and got the council to fund a special stage for breakdancing in Aotea Square.

Good on him, I thought, and off he went -- holding free competitions every Friday and Saturday night in Aotea Square on his council funded stage. I continued with my plans to hold further competitions, and even a national competition.

The problem came in February 1984 when The Sunday News rang to tell me that Gerry had called me a Pakeha rip-off merchant and what did I think of that? Turns out Gerry had decided he too wanted to run competitions at the YMCA and charge people admission; but he had a problem: me.

By now I was giving away $1200 a night in prizemoney (and later $1500) but he was only giving away a trophy. A trophy named after him, and one you only got to keep until the next competition he held. With his new competition he would give away some cash ($350) but the rest would be for The United Youth Trust. We were all led to believe this was a charitable trust but as it later turned out (see Part Two) that was not correct.

So naturally I had to defend myself to The Sunday News and they got their story. There is a snap shot of it below but you can read a full page copy of it by clicking here. (Oh, BTW, I went by my real name back then, so now you know). Obviously there's a lot more to this story (complete with clippings about Gerry Otimi and the money he took from the breakdancers) so come back tomorrow for Part Two....

From Gerry Otimi 19/06/09 1:30 PM

"I Shot The Prick"

The interweb was abuzz yesterday when news emerged that the NZ Supreme Court had released an audio recording of the part of David Bain's 111 phonecall that had been suppressed from his trial for the murder of his entire family.

Bain had just been acquitted but many of the public still considered him to be guilty (my own opinion on his guilt or innocence has flip flopped so many times I now just STFU) and the release of this tape just proved it.

Why? Because on the tape he can be heard blurting out "I shot the prick" to the 111 emergency call operator.

Wow. That is pretty damning stuff. It had evidently been ruled inadmissible by the Judge after the Defence successfully argued that it would be prejudicial to their case. Which in itself was pretty damning.

So that afternoon the internet and talkback radio was ablaze with people incensed that Bain had clearly gotten away with murder. Murder? - he’d slaughtered his family!

What a pity then that no-one had actually heard the audio recording before passing judgement. When the media finally got hold of it by late afternoon it was obvious why the Court had suppressed it: it was garbage. If you haven’t already heard it for yourself you can hear it here. To me it just sounded like the gasping of a panicked person who’d rushed to the phone to call 111 and alert the authorities that his family was all dead. I could possibly accept that he’s gasping “I can’t breathe” (as others have suggested) but there’s NO way he’s saying "I shot the prick" as the Police allege.

And this allegation only surfaced in 2007, in time for this latest trial. In previous trials the alleged "I shot the prick" comment was missed (because it’s not there!), even after detailed audio forensic work on the recording to try and clean up the sound.

The whole thing is bunkum and if you were one who seized on it yesterday then you need to check yourself. Just because a Policeman says it is so doesn’t make it so. They make shit up all the time and will happily lie (either directly or by omission) to suit their own purposes. They’re fuckers, I hate them.

Which is also immaterial to Bain’s guilt or innocence...

FWIW: I still think he did it.

The Not So Cheap Flight To Tokyo

Oh, the mighty power of Facebook. Someone in the media should write a story about it.

On Wednesday evening I got a tip from a Facebook friend that Air New Zealand's Grabaseat site had some very cheap seats to Tokyo, for a limited time. I logged on and snapped up one of their $650 (all-inclusive) economy seats, departing this Sunday. (Yes, by the time you read this I'm already there!) I was immensely pleased because I’ve always wanted to go, but the seats were always too expensive (ranging from $1500-2200 + taxes).

The euphoria died on Thursday when I looked up TripAdvisor to find out what I could do and where I could stay. I’d forgotten that Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in the world. That’s the problem with cheap airfares – your brain tricks you into thinking the whole trip will be cheap, when it won’t. I emailed my friend in Tokyo (who for 10 years has been saying ‘You should come over’) and asked him if NZ$1000 cash (on top of my credit card) would cover me for my weeklong stay. He responded by asking what I planned to do on the second day, because Tokyo is expensive. I’ll be busking, I suppose.

He’s sorted me out with a hotel for what he assures me is the bargain price of NZ$200 a night. So now I’m excited again. I’ve just decided ‘fuck it – I’m going so make the most of it’. And that he can buy the drinks.

For someone who’s always wanted to go to Japan for the longest time you’d think I’d actually have an itinerary sorted, but I don’t. After 4 hours on TripAdvisor I was just as confused as when I began, so I gave up. None of the names or places mean anything to me, so I thought ‘bugger this – I’ll just decide what to do by reading the inflight magazine’. Yes, I know it’s stupid, but some of the best times I’ve had traveling have been when I just wandered around aimlessly.

There was one time, in San Francisco, that I ...