Educating Mao ※

Subject: Contacting the Herald

Subject: article in Herald opinion section

Hi Paul
I think you might be interested in a Charmaine Pountney article in the opinion section of the New Zealand Herald. I could only read it online. I assume it is also in the paper edition. There is so far a small number of online comments. Two mentioned you by name as regards a Herald piece by you about the Declaration of Maori Independence in 1835.

I sent a comment regarding the scarlet patch fraud but the Herald will not post it. So I am now boycotting the article. I had a run in with Ms Pountney almost twenty years ago at the School of Education at Waikato University. Until she found out I had a small fame as an author, I was a bit of excrement on her shoe.

I personally think there was method in Busby's madness. There was no telegraph in 1835 and a French fleet suddenly appearing on the New Zealand horizon was not far-fetched. This was the era of King Louis Philippe who had been in the circle of French émigrées during the Napoleonic era. Five years later a colonist French fleet did come – or maybe just one ship. Would like to hear from you
Lloyd Gretton
Gongji China

Subject: article in Herald opinion section

Subject: article in Herald opinion section

Hi Paul
I certainly agree that Ms Pountney and her ilk are pursuing a very radical agenda. It apparently all goes back to the Frankfurt School which brought in cultural Marxism. An objective past is not their culture. We are without doubt, dead white males. Still they are raising in-depth historical issues and give a different emphatic perspective on the past. When I am in a good mood I think we are all painfully working these things out for a universal human history.

In the E.U. the historical past is severely prescribed. The citizens are supposed to have one foot rigidly set in 1945 and the other waving about in cultural relativism. Something will have to give. Meanwhile E.U. historians are actually being gaoled. I am beginning to understand why the Democratic German Republic let the wall fall. By co-incidence the Democratic Republic was in the heartland of Prussia!

I have been looking over your bio in wikipedia. As it said or words to the affect – prolific. I noted your Kosovo book is missing. I think you self-published that. I assume you tried to find a publisher. But they probably feared repercussions from NATO. They would have the excuse Yugoslavia is not your professorial field.

I have a web site that posts my writings, mostly fiction that raises issues that interest me. On a dreary day you might find some entertainment. It can be googled as Sargon Press.

Regards
Lloyd

Gongji China

Subject: re:article in Herald

Subject: Every day affairs

Subject: I am getting your emails

Dear Dad
I am getting your emails. So don't worry about your computer or the bank. Once your email goes into the outbox it has been sent. If there is anything wrong with the email address, it is sent to your inbox. There it reports failed delivery. That is why it is such a good idea to send email via reply. When I leave China, I will see that I have transferred the money to NZ.

The waiting list issue can be a scandal. My hemorrhoids ailment was completely messed up at Auckland hospital. I wish now I had never gone near the doctors about that and had instead used the water treatment recommended to me by a doctor in Korea. It now keeps it under control and I use no medication.

I only teach oral English. Thank goodness, as I have the perfect excuse to avoid marking assignments. Last week was an internal exam week for the sophomores. I showed movies to the freshmen students. We saw Forrest Gump which is a wonderful movie.

I had some interesting correspondence with Paul Moon, the New Zealand Auckland Professor of History. I will forward the emails to you.

I have been emailing you when you send me an email. Would you like to receive each day a daily report of my activities? Most of it will be quite dull. That is the way I like it! I have really semi-retired like you did in teaching when you were my age.

I have nearly completed a book Twentieth Century Italy. It is rather dry and academic, clearly meant for College students. But still very interesting. The lead up to the rise of Mussolini does so remind me of America today. There is something approaching a foreclosure revolt in America. About a quarter of American home-owners are behind in their mortgage payments. Banking practices have been found out to be fraudulently foreclosing homes. People are refusing to leave and empty houses are being occupied.

I read about John Key's slip-up in calling Hillary President Clinton. She is identified internationally as the face of the American Empire. Obama is a spent force. But I would not write him off yet.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: lloyd's diary

Dear Dad
I thought you might like a diary report on my activities over the weekend. I finished the Italian book and now have nearly completed a book called Napoleon's Glance. It is by an American author and is about people who from an inspirational moment have achieved great things.

The most interesting story was about a Bengla Deshi who set up a people's bank. I think he received the Nobel Peace prize. The author did not seem to be aware that the the Bengla Deshi had simply rediscovered Social Credit. The bank now makes prosperous millions of once destitute people all over third world countries.

I have been asked and agreed to give an half-hour talk on Tuesday to the English Club. I have suggested the title A Kiwi In Gongji. I will use old photographs.
Love From Lloyd

Subject: Every day affairs

Dear Dad
This morning I showed the movie The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to my two sophomore classes. It was better than I thought it would be. The younger boy Edmund is a sneak and does not know the difference between right and wrong. The older boy Peter is an Aryan. The movie is clearly set up as a contrast to Harry Potter. Edmund looks like Harry Potter. The media plays these games.

After lunch I went to town and had a pizza and bought yogurt and coffee at a super market. I have found a much nicer shopping area closer to the College. The city centre has deafening pop music and children as old as eleven openly urinating on the pavement.

China is at its hippy 1960s stage. Like in the movie Alice's Restaurant. The restaurant I went to is a more upmarket version of KFC. Opposite the street is my bank. Next door to the restaurant is the supermarket.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: Every day affairs

Dear Dad
I checked your reply email but it was blank. There is something you are doing wrong. I can't work out what it is.

Today I had two freshman classes. I had the second class prepare a written assignment about the movie Forrest Gump they had seen last week. I made them put their assignment aside and talk about it to the class. I gave them marks out of five which will be in finals. One girl refused to put her assignment aside and then burst into tears when I gave her a low mark. I had to reinstate the mark to mollify her. The rest of the class thought it very amusing and even she laughed. Foreign teachers have to walk on eggs.

I found in the College Library Chinese translations of Animal Farm and 1984. All thought is permissible in China except direct criticism of the Government and the Chinese people. I doubt however those books are in Government libraries.

I finished reading online the memoirs of Victor Hugo. He records his experiences in the Paris bombardment by the Prussians in 1870. He records how he ate cooked rats and how he lost his son. 1870 is an interesting date as it is exactly seventy years before the 1940 German occupation of Paris. In both cases the German armies did a triumphal march through Paris.

Bismarck marched it on his horse. Hitler did the parallel by standing on top of the Eiffel tower. Exactly seventy years after 1940 is 2010.
There is an exhibition in Berlin this year that the Germans are queueing up to see. It is about evil Hitler. But I think it is 1940 the Germans are surreptitiously marking!

I agree with your words below that the war saved the New Zealand capitalist economy. Communist cells were waiting in every New Zealand town to take over once the economy collapsed. Your brother Harold was among them. I am rather sorry now the Communists didn't take over New Zealand. I speak from the heart.

You refer below to contractors. That is quite a recent thing. The public works was done by public service workers. They made a fantastic contribution little celebrated in literature except to some degree by Barry Crump. You should try and read some of his books.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: Your work diary

Subject: Your recent e mails

Subject: Every day affairs

Subject: Every day affairs

Dear Dad
The issue about the tears has long been settled. She got her way and got her extra point. Women usually do. Education is mostly a female driven agenda. So we have to humour them.

I had three classes today. I showed them movies. Really stupid slick contemporary American movies that go quickly to DVDs and downloading. However they choose them. Then I set an assignment for the next week. They have to write a report and talk about the movie. When I came for the third class, there were no students. The monitor was supposed to meet me at the classroom and take me to the computer movie room in another building. I tried to find them unsuccessfully. They are my worst class and I suspect they have slid out. I hope I hear no word about it until I catch them next Thursday. I will arrange to get a record of all the monitors' mobile numbers.

I received both your reply emails. I enjoyed reading both of them.

I know about Walter Nash and Gordon Coates. Coates is the father of the present-day public road system. He became a hated figure as like Obama he tried to reconcile public mercy with an economic shake-down.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: Every day affairs

Dear Dad
Today I had two classes and finished for the week by twelve o'clock. I tested each student and gave each one a mark out of five for their talk on the movie Forrest Gump. I thought their standard had improved. Then I had a lesson on dating and marriage.

At the end of the second class the monitor said my lessons are interesting. Last night I got a telephone call from one of my students. After some struggle I found out she was enquiring about the assigned home work. I had asked the students to write down a report on the movie they watched for class. As my classes are all oral, I tell them I don't look at the paper report. I don't want to even see if they have done it. They must give their talk without referring to their paper report.

I once collected paper reports of two classes at the beginning of the term. They were about the Christchurch earthquake. Their work was pigin, that is it could be understood but had no basis in language accuracy. It could not be marked, only redone. This was over a hundred papers. Then they would not have looked at what I had written. So I made each student instead read out and I corrected each one's first sentence. Then I gave a lesson that ‘all the rules of the english language are in the sentence’.

After midday Friday, I sent in my clothes to the dry cleaners at the College. Then I went to my favourite town place. I had a pizza at the cafe and two Free Cuba wines at the Good Coffee restaurant.

Then I accessed the attachment for my talk sent to me by Doctor Xu. I have forwarded the email with the attachment. Just click the underlined attachment and it should come up.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: accessing my site

Dear Dad
I spent the morning with American teacher Jerry working on accessing my internet site for uploading more files. We were able to find a way to access my site on my pc. We came very close to uploading one word onto my article on my internet site.

I sent an email to iServe asking for assistance how to take the next step to uploading onto the internet.

After lunch I read my book about European children's literature. Then I went down the road and had dinner and a few beers.

Were you able to access the attachment Kiwi from Gongyi?

Subject: Poster for the Kiwi from Gongyi

Subject: re: Poster for the Kiwi event

Dear Dad
Just double click the words new zealand doc above with the paper clip sign.
The image should come up.
Lloyd

Subject: problems accessing picture

Dear Dad
You are not the only one having problems accessing the attachment. See if Dawn can help you. The picture is not so great.

This morning I went and had lunch at the cafe in town. Then I went to the printer and got a coloured print of the attachment I sent you. Doctor Xu came to my apartment at six pm and we arranged the placement of photographs and texts in a file folder for the talk the following Tuesday.

I finished my book on fairy tales and am now reading a book on western civilisation with photographs.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: using the reply symbol

Subject: re: using the reply symbol

Dear Dad
I think your problem with the return email has been the space matter. After you have clicked the return button above, all you need to do is move the cursor vertical arrow next to text. The vertical cursor arrow is the mouse when you click its left side. Once you click its left side, the text will move down the screen. Just keep clicking until you have enough space to write your email. If there is again no space, just use the mouse again.
Ask someone to help you, if you have difficulties.

I did well with my two classes today. They are really enthusiastic classes. My problem classes are the two morning and afternoon classes on Thursday. It is ironical that they most resemble me at high school. I am the poacher giving orders to the game keepers!

I finished classes at midday. Then I went to my favourite eating place at Good Food restaurant. I had a pizza and chips, coca cola and coffee. Then I went to Good Coffee restaurant down the road and had a Free Cuba.

I hear there has been a terrible mining accident on the West Coast. That is always very dangerous work.

I understand today is your ninety second! Well congratulations! Tell me about your birthday party!
Love from Lloyd

Subject: The Royal Engagement

Subject: real-estate classes

Dear Dad
I remember the 1981 marriage of Charles and Di. Who could have thought it would end so grotesquely?

There was an interesting article about it in the New Zealand Herald. I will try to email it to you. 1981 seem now so distant!

I did my three real-estate classes today. I always dread Thursday. Most of the students are male and so listless some can barely lift the pages of their textbooks. They are docile. But I always entertain the not surprising anxiety that they are going to blame me for their own stupidity, and as a powerless white male I am blamed and sent down the road. It make me so mad that teachers now have to be at the mercy of the stupidest students and parents.

The mystery of the missing class last Thursday was cleared up. The monitor forgot to come and fetch me from the classroom for the movie.
That is an indication of their mental level. She is actually a girl and one of their better ones. The second class isn't so bad. But the first and third classes are often asleep and many disappear at break time.

I did the roll call again and marked absent the missing ones. I had warned them I would do this. But they were too stupid to understand. They are, incredibly, sophomore classes. They must have learnt very little last year. But with them – as long as they are happy! – it is fine with the teacher.

I make the lessons as simple as I can. I am restricted to my text books.
What more can I do?

Doctor Xu has now put up a poster in the foreign teachers compound for my Tuesday talk at the College English Corner. It is titled Kiwi in Gongyi and shows a kiwi bird image alongside a picture of the Sung Tombs site.

So you are going to have a special birthday dinner at the RSA on your ninety second. I recall you and Mum were outside Gisborne on your ninetieth. On your ninety-first you had your first full day in hospital and the nurses celebrated it.

I take it your birthday is on November 20. You were born nine days after Armistice Day on November 11 1918. I take it that is why your name is ‘Frances’.

David ‘Lloyd’ Geering was so called after Lloyd George because he was also born in 1918.

Armistice Day is still marked in the U.K. by a few minutes official silence on the nearest Sunday to November 11.

Armistice Day was a public holiday in America. In 1954 the name was officially changed to the public holiday of Veterans Day, because America since 1941 has been on a permanent war footing.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: your birthday party?

Dear Dad
How was your birthday party? I can't imagine there are many service men around your age.

I went into town for lunch to the Good Restaurant and had a chicken burger and coffee. I returned to College and read my book European Civilisation. Then I had dinner with Daniel and his wife. We discussed what we will do on our January holiday.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: Documentary on J.F.K's Assassination

Subject: Hi from Dawn

Subject: lloyd's talk – Kiwi In Gongyi

Dear Dad
I hear you have been having difficulties with emails. We should now stick to sending new ones. But you will have to be very careful you get my email address right. When you start clicking my address, clear may send you it. In that case you should use that.

I did one sophomore class this morning and finished class at ten. I then read my civilisation book. In the afternoon I went to the College library and got out two more books, After The Victorians by A N Wilson and Tolerance.

In the evening I gave my talk. It seemed to come across well to a large appreciative class of students. Only one foreign teacher apart from Doctor Xu came. We had a recording of Vera Lynn singing ‘Now Is The Hour’ with New Zealand pictures. I also performed the Te Rauparaha haka. There was a photograph of two people in a paddock who looked like you and Mum.

After that I went down the road and bought bananas and a few Chinese beers.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: A good reception this morning

Subject: you should sell the car

Dear Dad,
I am pleased to see you are getting on so well with home help Beverley. I did not get the top of your email. So I missed the bit about the breakfast routine. I take it you can do your own showering.

Now that you are no longer driving, you should sell the car. With lack of usage it will develop quite an odour. Without it, you can make the garage a pleasant store house. Plus the sale of the car would bring you a nice bonus.

I had two freshman classes today. I showed movies and told them to talk about it in their next class for homework. With the exception of Forrest Gump the movies have been pretty rat-shit. But the students mostly like them.

I now know you birthday is on Friday. I knew it was close to J.F.K's assassination but put it the wrong way round. I did some archive reading about the assassination. That was the era I grew up in. So it seems so remote yet recognisable.

Must away to bed with my civilisation book. It is the warmest place.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: Your yesterday's letter

Subject: Your email of 24th

Subject: English Corner College Club

Hi Paul and Dawn
I can see now where Dad's confusion has been. Mary set him off into a new territory of return mails. He should just stick to his old system that he first used. I had forgotten he prints his mails. Then of course the old mails come through. I will send him all his return emails again but each time I will delete the old stuff before I send it. Then maybe you could get into his files and throw away the old ones.

I hear some bad things are happening in New Zealand. How sedate our early lives seem to be now! John Key is in his element in these situations as is the National Party generally. They are the grandee party that people rally to.

Key has some resemblance to Hitler. They are after all both Austrian Jews.
It was recently established through DNA family tests that Hitler was part-Jew/part-African like Whoopi Goldberg!

His body was in a very restricted space in the bunker but it is now found out through DNA tests his remains have not been found. That really means he escaped!

I think now the stories that he died in Uruquay in the 1970s are true. There is a German colony in the mountains there where visitors are forbidden and there are strange official-type ceremonies and visits. There is also a head-of-state type tomb there that receives fresh flowers every week. They are biding their time!

I am giving a talk tonight to the English Corner College Club about my life and New Zealand. I managed to upload pictures from my internet site to use at the talk. We plan to finish with Vera Lynn singing ‘Now Is The Hour’.
Lloyd

Subject: Dawn has sorted Frank's computer

Subject: What happened at the RSA?

Hi Paul and Dawn
What happened at the RSA? I may have got the wrong impression. I thought the RSA had arranged a special event for the big birthday.

It is interesting what you say that Dad has made my letters his "thoughts of the day". I suppose having a son a college teacher is something he likes to show around. It's not really professor league, but in an odd way what he always wanted a Gretton to achieve has come true.

I gave a talk last night about myself and New Zealand to the College English Corner club. There were over a hundred listeners. My quote from Dad that my birth was "It wasn't my idea", got the biggest and longest laugh.

That is the only admission Mum and Dad have ever given about the circumstances of my birth.
I said to the audience, "One day I am going to find out what he meant".

I don't quite get your reference to Hoover.

Every now and then, the public comes close to exposure to the true story of World War Two. Whenever that happens, there is an odd technical malfunction that keeps the information hidden. The last time there was a plane crash and all the crew died but all the passengers survived! I try not to be paranoid but I would not advise anyone to fly on a commercial flight in the next few weeks.

In the German colony in Uruguay there was an Italian Catholic Father who ministered to the Germans and Indians. His name was Father Crispus and he died in 1993. His death received a head-of-state type funeral and there were many mysterious mourners. Then his art treasure was flown out.
It is ostensibly his tomb I spoke about in the previous email.

There have been sightings of Hitler in South America. He was described by visitors, such as an American oil executive, as a ‘genial frail old man’.
A German submarine is known to have surfaced mysteriously in New Zealand waters in the last years of the war. It surfaced outside Gisborne. Yet it never attacked.

I now think it was the vessel that took the Nazi echelon to South America.

Regards
Lloyd

Subject: How was your big day?

Dear Dad
How was your big day? What exactly happened? How did Paul and Dawn get on?

This morning till twelve o'clock I showed a movie to two freshman classes. It was a fool of a movie. I am not going to show any more movies. In today's cynical work environment it is called ‘Covering your arse’. That is, you have always something to show that fits the curriculum.

After classes I went to my town district and had a pizza and fast food lunch at Good Food restaurant. Then I went to Good Coffee restaurant and had a Blue Hawaiian and Free Cuba wines.
Then I came home.

I hear you are all mourning the Pike Mine disaster. I imagine the media ran stories non-stop of the hopes aroused then dashed. You got to know the people on the West Coast. Maybe this will make a kinder gentler John Key. He actually used the biblical quote, "I am my brother's keeper".

In the E.U. Ireland is now collapsing under the burden of home mortgages. What you said years ago about the new money economy is turning out to be right.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: That biblical quotation

Subject: Rudolf Germar & David Cole

Hi Paul and Dawn
I was a bit under the weather when I wrote the email below, having had an end-of-week two wines at Good Coffee restaurant.

I have just got an email from Dad. He had a splendid time at the RSA. I will forward you the email but don't tell him that.

The correct name of the Italian Father is Father Krespi. He was a man of God in the traditional Catholic sense and ministered and gave money to the poor. The western media is now spreading the rumour he was Adolf Hitler in disguise. The media deliberately spread ridiculous stories to obfuscate the real issues and discredit real researchers.

The German colony is in Ecuador not Uruguay. 1945 was nothing like the instant communication world we have now. Many people quite matter of factly including hoteliers have reported sightings of Hitler in South American countries in those years. He must have gone somewhere. There is only one other person I know of who completely disappeared from his tomb.

It is very interesting to take a long-term view of history and realise we are not so different from our ancestors. Germany took a hundred years to recover from the Thirty Years War.
It is illegal in Germany to compare the Thirty Years War to 1914–1945 era. During the Napoleonic wars the British people were given the story that Napoleon was a cannibal.

There was a lovely young man called Rudolf Germar who exposed the falsehood of the German atrocity stories of World War Two. He was imprisoned in Germany. When he came out, only his parents took him in. He is now silent.

In America, a Jew – David Cole did the same thing. He had to recant because his mother was dying and there was a hit put on his life via the internet by Zionist Jews. The western media is silent about these things because they don't know how to put a spin on them. But they are all over the internet.

Anyway it is all very fascinating. The novel Les Miserables gives some good insights into present history.
Lloyd

Subject: John Key's mother was Austrian Jewish

Dear Dad
I don't know what John Key's religious affiliation is. His mother was Austrian Jewish. Interesting the expression brother's keeper was used by Micky Savage. There are many grand words in the bible.

I am delighted you met another 92 year old soldier. Were you able to communicate with him? The meal sounds itself from another age. My mouth is certainly watering. I suspect it is not really the music of U2 that the Cowpers like. It is really the personality of the Irish performers.

Today I did some reading. Jerry came in and we worked on uploading my internet site. Then at midday I went with a senior student to buy food powders for my breakfast. If he buys them with me, he gets company numbers and eventual money. We had lunch together at Good Food restaurant. Then I purchased six weeks supply of food powders. We listened to a company booster meeting on direct sales. Then we, with one of my students called Romeo, returned to the College. I met Jerry who said he is now very close to uploading my site.

I had dinner down the road and a few beers.

Now off to bed.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: RSA meal was delightful

Subject: students into direct selling

Dear Dad
The breakfast powder is made up of basic nutrients. China does not provide cereals. The students are into direct selling. Their company also works in New Zealand. If they bring someone to the health shop, they collect company points for payment later.

This morning I washed my clothes and washed the floor. I also put out my rubbish.

I finished the Civilisation book and commenced reading the After The Victorians book. That evening Daniel rang me. I went to the shop down the road and purchased some bottles of beer and coffee bags. Then I had dinner, drinks and a talk at Daniel's and his wife's apartment.
Daniel was an aspiring film maker but was rendered destitute by the American recession.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: The working man is dispensable

Dear Dad
This morning I had two sophomore classes. After the second class a girl came up and complained that I was teaching too much grammar. She said the Chinese teachers taught that.

I replied "You don't know it". I am correct. But I have to accommodate myself to any feed-back. From my experience negativity from administration leads to dismissal. The girl is bright but has been lazy and disobedient. It is that group that have the power in the classroom.

With ESL comes the western model which is from mostly semi-illiterate North American female graduates. Most of my students are now talking in sentences. Before I came on the scene they weren't even doing that.

After midday, I read my book After The Victorians. I had a haircut in the evening and bought two new pens in business street. Business street is commercial and is part of the campus. My campus card pays for all services.

The mining disaster seems to be New Zealand's 911. There was a time, even in my memory, when these events were covered in the six o'clock news and were quite detached from the public. These days these events become the focus of everyone lives. I think that creates unnecessary stress. There used to be a Mines Government Department that had twenty four hours surveillance of mining safety. The Mines Department has been replaced by OSH which has a feminist slant and no specialised knowledge of mining. The working man is, alas, very dispensable.
Love from Lloyd

Subject: pizza, coca-cola, chips, tarts, coffee

Dear Dad
I had one sophomore class this morning. Then I went into town to Good Food restaurant and had a pizza, coca-cola, chips, two tarts and coffee. Then I went to the supermarket next door and bought two plastic bottles of yogurt. I returned home and went to bed and read my book After The Victorians.

In the evening, I went to a English Corner meeting and listened to a talk by Jerry called the American Car Culture. As Jerry is my age, I can easily relate to it. I had a chat with Daniel after it.

Now back to bed and my book.
Love from Lloyd