Once again there's mischief with 2022 meaning of a Maori term. The Maori word puapua seems to have several different meanings from the first use of it in Papers Past in 1857 until its last use in 1913, something that is itself a little unusual. Leaving aside that it was the name of a geyser in Rotorua, a name of a farm in the South Island, the name of a place in the North Island and the name of a small town in Tonga its use seems to have mainly meant either a type of arm protection against spears, a flower or (maybe) a women’s vulva.
There is one other meaning of PUA though and that is as “Potentially Unwanted Application” or in other words a type of privacy-invasive software that you didn’t approve installation of. If I look out my window right now I can see one example of this on top of a light pole about 30 metres down the road.
My sides are splitting.
Anyway these days most in New Zealand know the word from the extremely politicized He PuaPua a term that is supposed to mean ‘a break’ and a policy that is in the process of breaking New Zealand apart (no sex please and make sure that you keep two metres apart from each other). The idea that it means ‘break’ is a new meaning seemingly sourced from one meaning (not evident in Papers Past) that this word could mean ‘a break in a wave’. Maybe a visit to the East Cape is needed to confirm whether there’s any substance to this meaning of the word but I suspect not.
Anyway I have always suspected that this policy and the 3 Waters policy are not of New Zealand origins and in this regard I note this post by Azra Dale;
How damned familiar. So let’s end this post with an excellent speech by the former broadcaster Peter Williams about the state of ‘3 Waters’ and the theft that it encases, for example the “Government” offer on Tauranga’s water assets currently valued at a billion or so NZD is somewhere around 40m NZD. This is theft. By the class of people that George HW Bush represented and the likes of Ardern, Clinton and Obama work for;
Thanks to Bassett, Brash and Hide.
Manaia Mahuta can go to hell.
He Poo Poo